Alexa Barber and the Trial by Fire
by Ms. Kupua
Summary: Alexa is a young demigod who lost everything; She lost her mother, she lost her sister, she lost the only home she'd ever known, but in doing so she's found a better home. A home she'd walk through hell to protect, and family she'd give anything for.
1. Beginnings

The room was silent save for the hissing television and the gentle snoring of its lone occupant. It was nearly three in the morning and two sets of eyes peeked into the room from the hall. Alexa and Morgan glanced at the lone figure in the arm chair, then at one another. Morgan gave Alexa a small smile and a squeeze around the middle.

"It's okay" The older sister mouthed. "We can go…"

Chewing her lip, Alexa glanced at the lump in the arm chair, then back at Morgan. Morgan gave her an encouraging nod and tiptoed through the room. Hesitating for just a moment, Alexa followed.

The two were as different as two sisters could look; Morgan was older by a few years, nearly 14 now, with long dark, beautiful, black hair that flowed over her shoulders and down to the middle of her back. Long and leggy, no longer little girl cute but in that awkward gangly stage inbetween girl cute and womanly beauty. Alexa, by contrast, was her short little sister, only five, with a tangled mop of brown hair that hung down around her face.

Both girls were dressed in pajamas, with Alexa's featuring a prominent duo of a gray-blue cat and a brown mouse. As they stepped through the thick, orange carpet of their tiny apartment, they had to avoid the land mines all over the floor; old food wrappers, green and brown bottles that had once held beer, and the remote for the tv. The two made it to their destination, the little kitchenette. As silently as she could, Morgan retrieved the two items they had quested for and the pair began stepping over the stained orange carpeting again.

Clink

Both girls suddenly froze as Morgan's toe brushed a bit too close to a bottle, causing it to gently knock against another. The lump in the armchair stirred in the glow of the tv. Morgan's hand shot out and grabbed Alexa's shoulder, rooting her to the spot and keeping her from bolting.

The lump groaned and rolled over, then promptly began to snore again. The two girls stayed stone still for a moment longer before continuing their trek, a bit faster than before. They made it to the safety of their shared bedroom and after locking the door behind them, they sat down on the floor between their beds.

"That was scary…" Alexa whimpered.

"Yeah" Morgan agreed. "But we got it!" She grinned a conspiratorial grin towards her sister and dropped the plastic container in front of her. She gently removed the sleeve from it revealing their prize. A row of chocolate chip cookies. Alexa's eyes lit up.

Her big sister pulled a small candle out of a smaller box in her left hand and shoved the dark blue waxy end into a cookie. She reached under her bed and retrieved a little green lighter. With a flick the flame sprung to life and she gently lit the candle. She held the cookie out to her little sister, watching the candle's flame flicker in her eyes. The two stared at it for a moment before Morgan began to gently sing.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Alexa-"

Bang!

The two froze as something hard and heavy shoved against their bedroom door. Alexa quickly blew out the candle without thinking.

"Open up you little bastards or I'm going to break this fucking thing down!" Their mother's voice came blasting through the door like gunfire. Morgan glanced at her sister. Their mother was drunk again, that much was clear from the way she was shouting, louder than either of them could remember hearing her. Alexa knew what that meant and she began to tremble in response. Morgan got to her feet and pressed her body against the door.

"Window!" She hisses "Down the fire escape! I'm right behind you!"

"B-but-!" Alexa whimpered. There was another thud, and more curses from behind the flimsy door. Alexa could see cracks forming in the wood.

"Go!" Morgan commanded. Alexa was quick to obey, hurriedly flinging open the window and scurrying down the fire escape.

Even through the noise of the city below her, she could still hear the loud crack of the door breaking. There was a moment of silence. Alexa was only two floors below her window. She heard the scream.

"Morgan!" she cried. Her mother's head appeared at the window, covered in little red speckles, her eyes unfocused for just a moment before they locked onto Alexa's face.

"See what you did you?" Her mother slurred. "You...a-and _him_! You did this to her! A-and when I catch you...you...you're gonna be just the same as her!"

Alexa didn't move, not until her mother started to pull herself through the opening. It was only then that Alexa bolted again, down the fire escape, down to the street in her bare feet, and down the sidewalk, blinded by her tears.

* * *

"So what's the story with her?" The two officers were talking in the next room. Alexa pretended she couldn't hear them as she sat at the table. It had been hours, and the nice lady had volunteered to go get Alexa some lunch. Alexa sat at the little plastic table, huddled in a blanket, unable to tear her eyes from the green plastic.

"Domestic situation. Her mom chased her out of their apartment with a butcher's knife. She's got bruises and scars all over her back...pretty open and shut case on this one."

The other policeman sighed. "Poor kid…"

"Yeah. She couldn't even tell us what happened for 3 hours… probably hasn't eaten or slept since yesterday." Alexa pulled the blanket tighter around herself. She didn't know if she could ever sleep again...not after what had happened. Every time she closed her eyes she could see her mother's face, still speckled with red.

The two officers' conversation paused as the nice lady returned. She sat down across from Alexa.

"Here we go sweet heart." She said, putting the little bag down in front of Alexa and pulling from its greasy depths two hamburgers, and a large fry. Alexa didn't do much beyond pick at her food, her eyes still focused on the table. The nice lady leaned in closer to her lowering her voice.

"Listen sweetie...I know this is going to be tough, but...I can promise you things will get easier. Not necessarily better...but easier." Alexa said nothing. The woman reached out and gently grasped her hand. Alexa flinched at first, but didn't pull back from the contact. The woman's fingers were long and cold, but exceedingly gentle, the nails painted a deep forest green.

"There's going to be a man coming" The nice lady continued, lowering her voice still further. "He's going to say that he's your father's brother. He's going to provide some legal documentation and he's going to take you away from here. Okay?" Alexa blinked.

"But...but my daddy…"She started to say.

"Isn't in the picture. I know." She gave her hand another quick squeeze. "But there's a special place, not too far from here for kids just like you. They'll take care of you in ways that no one else can and they'll keep you safe."

Alexa's body began to tremble again. "Even...even from...her?" She manages to ask.

"Especially from her. She won't even be able to find you even if she somehow manages to get out!"

Alexa began to chew on her lip, but all the same, she nodded her agreement.

Just as the nice lady had said, within the hour the two officers were talking to a new man in the hallway. He was tall and painfully thin, brown hair poked out of his baseball cap in rough curls, and he wore a metal brace on his left leg, supported himself with a metal crutch under his right arm. A frown creased her face.

"What's wrong? That's the man I told you about!" The nice woman whispered gently. Alexa shook her head.

"It's not that…" She said, trying to figure out just what that little tickle in the back of her head meant.

"Then what is it?" The woman asked.

"He...doesn't need those things…" She finally said, nodding at the metal brace and the crutch. She didn't know how she knew but they just felt like they weren't being used right. The brace wasn't correcting or aiding in any way, and the crutch didn't have any weight set on it...he didn't actually need them. The woman smiled and gave her hand a quick pat before returning her gaze to the three men.

The three had finally stopped talking and turned to face Alexa and the nice lady. The man with the crutch fake limped his way into the room.

"Sweet heart...you probably don't remember me, but I'm your Uncle Theodore." He gave her a gentle smile and held out his free hand. "I'm here to take you home with me...if you want to."

Alexa glanced up at the nice lady who gave her an encouraging smile and a small nod. Slowly, Alexa reached out and took the man's hand. He turned and looked at the two police officers.

"Will there be anything else? Or can I just head on out…? I'm sure she's going to want to rest after...after everything."

One of the officers shook his head. "We have your number in case we need more information from her." He squatted down so that he was at eye level with Alexa. "You take care of yourself, okay kid? Be strong"

With that, Alexa followed the strange man with a crutch he didn't need out of the police station and to a white van with some sort of logo on the side. Alexa, who was still learning her letters, didn't really register what it said before she was ushered into the front seat. The inside of the van smelled like strawberries and dirt.

Uncle Theodore climbed into the driver's seat and carefully placed his crutch behind him on the floor of the van before setting out. The two of them made their way through the normal mid morning gridlock, towards the interstate.

"Where are we going…?" Alexa only just thought to ask as they got onto the highway.

"There's a place...it's sorta a camp for kids just like you. You'll like it there, there's strawberry fields, and volleyball, and a whole bunch of fun things." Uncle Theodore answered brightly, glancing over at her.

"...There's a camp for kids with crazy parents?" Alexa asked flatly. Uncle Theodore grimaced and looked as if he wanted to say something. Instead he paused and cast a nervous glance upwards at the clear blue sky.

"No, dear. It's a camp for other kinds of people. Kids who are...a bit different." He answered. Alexa said nothing, and drew her blanket up around her again. The two drove in silence after that, away from New York City and down Long Island's northern half.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to the child, the van turned down an old gravel road. They ascended up a slight hill and from there the trees suddenly opened up. Alexa got her first look at the place; a lush forest way out to the north, a vaguely U shaped collection of buildings across a small river that emptied from a lake. Moving across the lake she could see several people in orange shirts paddling canoes or splashing one another. Closer to the road was a sandy pit where several more orange clad kids were playing volleyball, in the shadow of a very large, very red house. A house where the gravel driveway ended.

"Alexa" Uncle Theodore said "Welcome to Camp Half-blood"


	2. Meeting the Neighbors

The van made its bumpy way down the gravel driveway towards the big red house. Despite what had happened, Alexa found herself peeking out the window as they passed by the volleyball pit. Several of the kids, all older than her, paused in their game to look back at her. One girl with curly black hair even gave her a smile and a wave as the van inched its way past.

Uncle Theodore pulled the van right up next to the house and cut the engine. "Alright little lamb." He said gently, looking down at Alexa. His smile was kind, his eyes a little sad. "I know this is going to be a bit of a change, but don't worry, the activities director is very nice, and we're going to do everything we can to make this as easy as possible for you. You just got to be strong for us, okay?"

Alexa looked down at her shoes and nodded. She felt Uncle Theodore's hand land on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze before he opened the driver side's door.

"Hey Mr. U!" Called one of the volleyball kids. "Who's the fresh meat?"

Alexa slid out of the passenger seat, her shoes hitting gravel with a soft crunch. She hurried to the driver's side and promptly grabbed Uncle Theodore's hand. The one who had shouted was lightly jogging over, the volleyball tucked under one of her arms forcing their game to a stand still. She was an older girl, much older than Alexa, tall and broad shouldered. Her messy red hair was cropped short, her blue eyes seemed to lock on Alexa, and her smile was a bit too...crooked to be friendly. Like a strip of barbed wire somehow grew lips and teeth.

"Jasmine we've talked about calling new campers 'fresh meat'." Theodore said, his lips pursing.

"And I told you to call me Jazz, Mr. U. So we're both not following directions!" She responds with a smirk. Uncle Theodore sighed.

"This is Alexa Barber." He said. "I'll tell you a bit more about her here in a few minutes, but right now Chiron is waiting to give her her orientation." He turned and gave Alexa's hand a gentle squeeze "Come along, Alexa"

The two turned away, and began to walk towards the red house.

"Heads up, New-blood!" That was the only indication Alexa received before something slammed into the back of her head with a loud "pumph!" Alexa toppled forward, landing on her hands and knees in the gravel.

"Jasmine!" Uncle Theodore chastised. Alexa managed to look up just in time to see the white volleyball drop, seemingly from nowhere, and land precisely in the older girl's hand.

"I did give her a warning. Not my fault she didn't get out of the way" Jasmine taunted, still smirking. Uncle Theodore's eyes narrowed.

"I will be telling Chiron about this." He warns

"Oh no!" Jasmine said with a dramatic gasp. "Then I'll have to clean the weapon's rack for a week! Now ask me if I care." Her eyes turned back to Alexa. "What, are you going to cry, New Meat? Go on then, baby! Cry!"

A wave of heat seemed to wash over Alexa, starting from the pit of her gut and radiating outwards. Her cheeks went red, her hands clenched, and she turned away from Jasmine so that the older girl couldn't see the tears in her eyes. She had been so numb since that morning, she had almost forgotten what anger and humiliation felt like. But, just as quickly as those feelings swept over her, they were gone. Alexa quietly wiped at her eyes, stood back up, and slipped her hand into Theodore's. Uncle Theodore cast Jazz one last glare before leading Alexa up the steps to the red house's front porch.

Sitting at the porch's table were a pair of men. One was chubby, shorter, with curly black hair, wearing a leopard print Hawaiian shirt. Just looking at the man, Alexa felt something wash over her, a smell that she heavily associated with her mother. She didn't like looking at him for very long. The other man was almost the opposite of his table-mate; Thin, with thinning brown hair, brown eyes, and a coat that reminded her of one of the first grade teachers she had seen back at school. He was also sitting in a wheelchair that set off that little tickle in the back of her brain, the same way Uncle Theodore's crutch did. The little tickle that whispered that the wheelchair was not being used as intended. The teacher man looked up from the cards set out in front of him and smiled.

"Ah, Theo my boy, at last! We were beginning to worry!" He said. A small 'crkshh' interrupted him as the chubby man cracked open a silver can of Diet Coke with one hand, not even looking up from his cards. "...Well I was beginning to worry at least." The Teacher man amended with a soft chuckle.

"The only thing I'm worried about is you skipping your turn" The larger man shot back without looking up. The teacher man rolled his eyes theatrically before focusing on Alexa.

"I suppose this is our newest camper" He said, wheeling his chair around to fully face her. "Wonderful to meet you, my name is Chiron. I am the activities director here. That gentleman over there, is Mr. D. He is the head director."

"Under protest" Mr. D grumbled. Chiron ignored his comment, still talking to Alexa in a calm, gentle tone.

"We're going to gather up some supplies from the camp store, a few changes of clothes and some toiletries while you watch your orientation film." He glanced at Theodore. "Did Mallow say anything else before you left the city?"

Uncle Theodore shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Her information was completely accurate. She didn't need to give me anything else." Chiron nodded

"I see" Said the wheelchair bound man. "Well in that case I'd suggest Fred's orientation video. It's in the green case."

In response, Uncle Theodore just nodded and offered his hand to a still silent Alexa. As he lead her away, Alexa turned back and gave the two at the table a small wave. Mr. D didn't respond other than to take another sip of his diet soda, but Chiron gave her a smile and returned the gesture.

Uncle Theodore lead her through a few rooms, all the way back into a wood paneled office with a desk, a commodore computer, and an entertainment center with several records, a record player, and television. He lead her to the office's chair and gently motioned for her to sit down while he searched through the shelf of VHS tapes.

"Now I won't be too far away. I'll be just outside if you need anything, but this is something you have to experience and come to terms with on your own." He gives her a pat on the head and gently slipped the tape into the VCR, putting the green case down next to the TV set. He gave her one last look before quickly ducking out of the room.

A golden logo appeared on screen; a circle with a black silhouette of a horse drawn chariot running over a spitting serpent. "This is an Apollo films production" Read the caption in bright golden letters.

Before she could properly register that, the soft tinkling music of a familiar show reached her ears. Her eyes widened as the camera panned over a model town, zooming in on one particular home before cutting to the set inside. A tall, thin man with an affable smile and dark hair appeared in the doorway.

"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Could you be mine? Would you be mine?" The man gently sang, the words and the sincerity washing over her, making her feel as if she had sunk into a warm bath after a cold day. She felt herself smiling for the first time in hours as the man continued singing and swapped his coat for a sweater, and his black shoes for sneakers.

It was a marvelous, almost magical thing about the man on the screen, how he somehow made her feel safe and loved in a way only Morgan had made her feel before. This man, who she only really knew of in passing, wasn't just an image on the television, he was speaking directly to her and telling her that . As the song ended the man stared out of the television screen and gave her a smile.

"Hello Neighbor." Whispered Mr. Rogers.

* * *

Chiron let out a soft sighed as he finally managed to pull one of his rear hooves from the wheelchair disguise. It didn't seem to matter whether he wore the thing for 5 minutes or 5 days, it always seemed to chafe and refused to come off as easily as it went on.

"You're worried about her, aren't you?" Mr. D asked without looking up from the game still in progress, placing down one of his cards.

"Of course I am" Chiron said with another sigh. "If Mallow's information is accurate, she's a witness to filicide, and the victim of at least 5 years of parental abuse. That does tend to scar a child."

Mr. D only grunted in response, watching the disappearing form of Theodore sprinting towards the cabins. It wasn't exactly unheard of for a demigod to come out of a troubled situation, but these situations tended to crop up less and less in later years. As a matter of fact Alexa's case was the first in a long while to have come from a biological parent.

Standard procedure for such cases was to get them a place in Cabin 11, inform the cabin's campers what had happened, and sit the child in question down for the orientation video starring one of their most famous former campers. Fred Rogers might not have been the most decorated hero Camp Half-Blood had ever had, in his time there he had only completed one quest, but even Mr. D had to admit that he was one hell of a camp counselor. The boy just had a way with people and it only improved as he grew older.

"She's already started shutting down." Chiron continued, derailing Mr. D's train of thought. "We'll be lucky if we can get her to talk by the end of the month."

"There've been those in worse situations before." Mr. D grunted, but despite this stellar bit of encouragement, Chiron continued to look pensive. "Tell you what, why don't I pop in there and turn her into a fig tree. Then we won't have to worry about her getting better."

This, finally, earned him a change of expression. It wasn't the smile and chuckle that he had been aiming for, but a scowl was still an improvement.

"We are not going to be turning a traumatized little girl into a plant." Chiron said firmly.

"Fine, fine, I'll turn her into something else then" Mr. D said dismissively.

This time the disapproving glare was accompanied by silence. The two played pinochle in silence for several minutes before Chiron finally spoke.

"Are you sure you don't know?" He asked, the third time he's asked such a thing since they had heard from Mallow about the girl's case.

"For the last time, no. Just because she was a drunk doesn't mean she was one of my consorts and we don't exactly send out a memo to each other whenever we have another kid, you know." Mr. D put down the card he had been staring at.

"Maybe you should. It would certainly make things easier here." Chiron quips.

"Yeah, I'll float that by father the next time I'm in town. We'll see how well that goes coming from his degenerate, irresponsible son." Mr. D said with a roll of his eyes. Before they could get back into an old argument, Theodore arrived with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Welcome back." Chiron said, putting down his cards and turning to face him. In the time he was away Theodore had done away with his pants and shoes, opting instead for a pair of shorts and bare hooves. "Did it go well?"

"They're making up a bed for her as we speak in a nice quiet corner of the room, and I got her clothes, a toothbrush, and her first camp necklace!" Theodore beamed with pride.

"Good...we'll give her a few minutes, the video should be ending soon." Chiron motioned towards one of the chairs. "Would you like to join?"

"Well...I really don't think-" The satyr started to say

"Underwood, pull up a chair before I beat the centaur's skull in with it." Mr. D groaned.

"Y-yes sir!" Theodore said, quickly falling into one of the two empty chairs around the little table.

* * *

The last notes of the farewell song played out, and once again, Alexa was left alone with her thoughts. Her daddy...was a god? The little girl's brow furrowed her brain buzzing with questions.

He was a god...and yet...she was stuck with her mom? Why? Why had she been stuck there! Why had he left her with her of all people? Didn't he love her? Did he blame her for how her mother had turned out? Did both of her parents hate her? Why even have her if they weren't going to love her like parents were supposed to!

Anger began to bubble up in her stomach again and tears burned at the corners of her eyes. Her father was always a confusing point to her growing up. Her mother always seemed to blame her for him leaving them, and when she had asked Morgan what he had been like, she said she only saw him twice, and both times he had been a bit too intimidating to approach. She did remember the black beard, though, and the intense eyes.

Now that Alexa knew what he really was, that just made it all the worse. He had the power to visit whenever he wanted and he didn't! He never saved her from her mom!

Alexa took a deep breath, and let it out. Mr. Rogers was right, she told herself. It wasn't that he didn't care, it's that he was expected to keep his distance for her sake. If he had come to visit, his scent would draw more monsters once he left. Although the explanation made sense, it still left a bitter taste in her mouth. True, he would've brought monsters to their door, but she was already living with one monster.

That thought immediately got her mad again, but with a push, she forced the anger down once again. She could deal with that later. The six year old got up from the seat, wiped her eyes dry on the back of her hand and quietly walked out the door, heading down the hall towards the front porch, and the three men playing pinochle.


	3. Anyone else smell burnt bacon?

Alexa let out a soft groan as the sun peeked in through the window of Cabin 11. Not for the first time that week the 6 year old attempted to pull the pillow over her head and return to the realm of sleep and, not for the first time, she was prevented by a long, lanky teen with long black ringlets.

"Cabin 11! Up and at 'em!" She cried at the top of her lungs. Melissa Jardine wasn't exactly the best councilor to have if you were a late riser. Had any of the residence of Cabin 11 been told she had rooster blood in her none would've batted an eye. This had been the way they had been awoken every morning since she had taken the post two years ago and it was also how Alexa had started every day that week.

Most campers got out of bed with the chorus of grumbles, groans, and muffled curses. The only exceptions to this rule were Christopher O'Quinn, a pale, pudgy ten year old who could sleep through a hurricane if so inclined, and Alexa herself. The newest member of the Cabin 11 family grabbed her pillow and pulled it over her head. Maybe if she tried to ignore them all she'd be able to start the day later.

Her attempts were met with a woosh and a sudden cold feeling from her neck down, indicating that someone stole her blankets. The culprit was quick to identify themselves.

"Oh no you don't, lazy butt! Up and at 'em! It's a great day!" Melissa said in an annoyingly cheery voice. Alexa didn't respond beyond an annoyed little grunt.

"Come on" Melissa said, poking her in the side with a long, bony finger. "You're gonna miss the bacon if you don't get up soon"

Alexa let out another, a bit more forceful, annoyed grunt, and pressed her pillow a little tighter over her skull.

"Hey! That's two in a row! That's a new record for you! One of these days we'll get you to say actual words!" Melissa teased. This earned her a pillow to the face. Alexa grumbled as she got up, Melissa smiled at her and gave her already messy hair a light tossle before heading a few beds over to aid in the Herculean task of waking Chris. Alexa made her bed, and joined the rapidly growing line for the bathroom.

After taking an all too brief shower and brushing her teeth, Alexa dressed in her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She exited the bathroom to find four of the older campers, including Melissa, carrying a still snoring Chris out of his bed and towards the bathroom. Sighing, Alexa helped her fellow Cabin 11 residents clean up. With all of them, it really didn't take all that much.

After Chris had finally been roused with a shower with zero hot water left over, Cabin 11 joined the throng of other campers heading for breakfast. Seated at the Hermes table along with the rest of her cabin, Alexa helped herself to some bacon and toast, hoping that today would start off better than the ones before.

These hopes were quickly dashed by a sausage hitting her squarely in the forehead, bouncing off, and landing on her plate. A cackle followed this from the Ares table.

"Direct hit!" Jazz crowed. Alexa hunched her shoulders and glared down at the sausage, trying to fight down the bubbling anger she felt in the pit of her stomach. "What's the matter New Meat? Not your cup of tea?" Her new tormentor called.

She couldn't continue with the culinary assault, however, at that moment Chiron and Mr. D arrived and began to go over the morning announcements. Even Jazz wasn't dumb enough to try something right under the centaur's nose.

Alexa could say with all honesty that she didn't know what she had done to Jazz to make her hate her like she did. Every morning Alexa found herself under attack by the daughter of Ares; sometimes there was food flung her way, once her face was shoved into her scrambled eggs, and always there was the taunting. It only got worse when they actually went out for the camp activities. Hermes cabin shared two activities with Ares cabin; The rock wall before lunch, and various forms of combat training before dinner. No matter what she did, Jazz made it her personal mission in life to make Alexa's training that much harder. It almost felt like the opposite of a cheerleader; she always had someone on the sidelines screaming that she was never good enough and that she should just quit.

Melissa leaned over and put a hand on Alexa's shoulder. "Hey...it's okay" Whispered the cabin counselor in a rare show of seriousness.

"Just ignore her." She continued. Alexa could only nod her head. There was a slight pause before Melissa asked "Do you want us to put itching powder in her armor?" Alexa couldn't help but smile, but all the same she shook her head.

"There's that smile." Melissa said, her own smile breaking across her face. She gave Alexa's shoulder a little squeeze and went back to eating.

Alexa picked at her own food, eating a bit of bacon and a couple of slices of toast before she got up and took the rest to bonfire and dumped the whole plate in. She said a silent prayer to her father. She didn't want acknowledgement, maybe someday she might, but all she wanted was a bit of help dealing with Jazz.

* * *

Despite how the day started, Alexa found a smile taking up residence on her face as she put her foot down on the pedal. After an entirely too boring lesson on the written language of the Ancient Greeks, and a lackluster attempt at archery, the Hermes Cabin had arts and crafts scheduled with the Hephaestus Cabin. Today, they tackled pottery and Alexa found the experience more relaxing than anything she had done at camp thus far.

With every push of the pedal under her foot the ball of clay spun, and Alexa's fingers worked it into shape. The gray lump slowly turned into something more reminiscent of a bowl under the guiding force of her finger tips. True, she was far from the best artist here, but at the same time she was far from the worst.

A few more forceful squeezes of her fingers brought the damp clay upwards, the bowl starting to cave in on itself from the top as she spun it faster, and faster, dipping her fingers in the water bucket next to her to wet the clay as the bowl slowly morphed into something much closer to jar or an urn.

Had she had the option, she would've stayed like that for hours, days even, letting the anger flow out of her fingers and into the clay in front of her. But, sadly, the fates, or more accurately the camp itinerary refused to be so kind.

"Alright everyone, let's start packing it up!" Called the counselor for Cabin 9, a tall black haired boy of about 14 named Otto. "Anyone who has something they want to paint for next time gently carve your name into the bottom of your work and we'll put it in the kiln for-" Before he could finish, one of the Hermes kids chucked a large wet wad of clay at him from across the work space. Otto quickly ducked out of the way while the camper in question scurried off with a wicked cackle.

Alexa quietly scooped up her jar and walked it up to Otto. Otto greeted her with a gentle smile, but in his eyes she could see the unease. The whole camp had been informed of her situation, they all knew what had happened, and some campers, like Otto, tended to walk on eggshells around her.

"Ahh, what a nice jar, Alexa." He said, his smile widening a little. "You certainly have a knack for pottery!"

Alexa's own smile grew a little wider too, as she handed her work off to him.

"Do you want us to fire this up for you?" Otto asked. Alexa nodded eagerly. Otto gave her a gentle pat on the head. "Alright then." He glanced up, finding a lot of empty seats and a lot of clay pots and bowls in front of him.

"You better hurry, you don't want to miss your next activity" He said, gently shooing her out. Alexa sighed, how wrong he was.

She hurried to catch up with her Cabin Mates, her little legs finally bringing her to the end of the line just as Cabin 11 reached the rock climbing walls.

"Well, well, look who thought she could show up late!" Alexa winced and immediately tried to shuffle into the crowd of campers, but a strong hand gripped her by the forearm. "It's the New Meat!" Crowed Jazz as she lifted Alexa off the ground for all to see. The campers of Cabin 5 chuckled appreciatively.

"Jazz, lay off, okay?" Melissa said, stepping up to the pair, hands on her hips. Jazz grinned that barbed wire grin of hers and let Alexa drop.

"Of course. We're all friends here, aren't we?" Jazz said, earning another snicker from the Ares crowd. Jazz then turned to the rest of the group. "Now, for the slower of you who haven't figured it out yet, we're going to be climbing the wall today! The wall is an important part of your training as future heroes! It teaches you speed, sharpens your reactions, develops upper body strength, and some other bull that I'm sure is important to someone."

She looks around the group with a clap of her hands and grin."So, who would like to show us how it's done?"

Alexa looked up at the wall, noting the soft glow from the top and gulped slightly. Many of the older campers were quick to volunteer, and even quicker to scale the wall. Lava poured down periodically from the top, forcing the campers to dodge to one side or the other as the glowing hot liquid rock fell past them, pooling on the ground far below them.

Alexa might've hoped that she could run out the clock, that she could hide at the back of the line and just pray, but Jazz had other ideas.

"You're up next, noodle arms!" She said as her hand once again closed around Alexa's forearm. "Don't worry, we're makin' it nice and easy on ya!"

Alexa gulped as she was shoved towards the wall. With Jazz at the controls, she had no doubt that this was going to royally suck. Alexa shivered, her hands clenching. She could do this...she had to do this. She waited for the go ahead before she jumped up and started climbing. Immediately her fingertips began to ache, her arms began to burn as she dragged herself higher and higher. She had barely made it a quarter of the way before the shaking started.

At first Alexa thought the shaking was taking place in her own arms, a tremor rocking through her as a result of her limited arm strength but the hooting and laughing from below was quick to brush away that thought. She knew immediately that whatever was happening was Jazz's doing. The moment she realized this, a boulder twice her size crested the wall above her. Alexa let out a yelp and scrambled sideways, grasping onto hand holds for dear life. The boulder thundered down, scraping the wall inches from her left hand. She saw the soft orange glow to her right before she felt the wave of heat. A quick glance was all it took; She had somehow jumped within inches of a lava flow, and the super heated rock was dribbling down the rock wall towards her right hand. With a shriek, Alexa promptly let go of the rapidly warming rock she was using as a hand hold. With only one hand gripping the wall Alexa simply didn't have a chance to hold on when the shaking increased. She fell, screaming through the hot dry air. She had no doubt that she would've been seriously hurt had someone not caught her.

"Jazz, that is enough!" Screamed Melissa, carefully setting a still trembling Alexa down next to the rock wall.

"What?" Jazz asked with an air of faux innocence that fooled no one.

"You know damn well what! You turned the difficulty up way too high! Lava's not supposed to come in till level 3 and earthquake mode isn't accessed until level 5!" Melissa fumed, stomping closer to the other counselor.

"I thought she could handle it" Jazz responded, just as flippantly as before. The other Ares campers closed ranks in front of Jazz as the angry black haired teen marched closer.

"Bull! You've been gunning for Alexa since the moment she walked in! Y-!" Before Melissa could say anymore, Jazz pressed through the mass of the other Ares campers, her cocky smirk transforming into an irritated scowl.

"Yes, I have! I've been trying to toughen the weakling up! Look at her! No muscle, no power, no skills worth a damn and we're all supposed to feel sorry for her? Bull crap!" She turns to sneer at Alexa for a brief moment before continuing on her tirade. "News flash, Mel! We're all screwed up here! We all have issues! I'm trying to teach her the shit she needs to know when she leaves those borders! I'm trying to teach her to fight, to survive, to be strong! Hell, maybe if she was stronger, if she wasn't so weak and pathetic, maybe her fucking sister would still be alive right now!"

This caused the exact reaction Jazz knew it would. Hermes cabin was in an uproar, screaming for blood, Ares cabin were pressing in once again, holding back the mob of both claimed and unclaimed demigods. The din was so loud, no one seemed to notice that the always silent subject of the argument had gone very couldn't possibly know that the little girl's heart was beating harder and faster than it ever had before, that a fireball had formed in her gut and had spread its burning tendrils all throughout her body. They didn't know...not for several seconds.

* * *

Meanwhile, roughly 100 miles away.

With a casual flick of his wrist Ares deflected an axe that would've cut his head from his shoulders. Planting his sandaled foot into his opponent's chest, he drove his fellow war god back with a powerful kick.

"Nice shot. Unless you were trying to actually hit me." He said with a smirk, looking down at his son, Enyalius. Today, like many days that ended with the letter y, was a training day for the war gods and nothing quite got Ares' ichor flowing like a sparring match with his subordinates standing at attention, watching their poor, unlucky, brethren get the snot beat out of them.

Just as Ares began to march forward, towards his downed opponent, a ripple seemed to pass through the assembled gods. Alala felt it first, a shiver running down her spine and a look of eager anticipation coloring her face, a split second later Enyo perked up exactly like a hunting dog who had scented a rabbit, and that was when it reached Ares himself. He could taste it on the wind;conflict, rage, bloodlust, and an overwhelming inclination towards violence. He breathed it in and quickly sheathed his sword.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a fight to watch." The fight now forgotten, the divines quickly hurried out of the arena to a room Ares generally reserved for observing two things; MMA fights and any fight involving his kids, and the way it felt one of his kids just kicked a beehive.

* * *

The flood of Hermes campers was repelled by the living wall of Ares campers. With every move forward the wave of teens and preteens were pushed back by their larger, more muscled counterparts. For as brief as the scrimish was, it looked as if it was going to turn very bloody at any moment. That was precisely when the scream stopped the fighters in their tracks. It wasn't a scream of panic or even fear, this scream was a cry of unmitigated fury. It tore at the vocal cords of the screamer, the anger, pain, and the promise of retribution washed over the combattants and drew all eyes like an ocular magnet. This, and the fact that this awful, horrible noise was coming from Alexa shocked many, but what truly made jaws fall was what happened next.

Without anyone at the controls, the rock wall gave a rumble, shaking and shuddering as if it too were cowed by the force of the girl's scream. Then, all at once, lava spewed from every one of the hidden vents over the wall's surface, shooting from them at once like a series of red hot geysers. The lava pooled around the young girl's feet drawn to her side like a faithful dog. It completely encircled her, raising the temperature in the area to such a degree that by the time she finally stood from her crouched position she was all but obscured by the heat haze. Alexa stopped screaming, panting and red faced, glancing down at the bubbling ring of liquefied stone.

"Haha! Now that is exactly what I'm talking about!" The shout came from the middle of the group of Ares campers. Alexa's eyes, only visible in the haze because of the steam cascading off them, snapped upwards and locked onto the speaker. The gaze seemed to part the sea of campers revealing Jasmine, grinning like a maniac as she appraised Alexa. Alexa felt the ball of rage in her gut grow white hot. As she raised her hands into fists, the lava rose into two graceful arcs, like two serpents with bulbous heads.

Only then did Jazz realize what was coming. The smile faded. "U-uh oh…" She managed to squeak before a screaming comet trailed by two firery tails surged towards her. Jazz quickly backpedaled, barely able to reach up and tap a bracelet on her left wrist. The shield that sprouted from the enchanted band of metal took only seconds to reach full size. Even so, Jazz barely got it up in front of her before the first blast of lava slammed into its polished bronze surface.

The metal quickly heated, the air around Jazz burned, and the strength of the assault caused her knees to buckle. Alexa flung her arms out, one after the other. Each rage fueled punch slamming the liquid stone into the shield.

"You don't get to talk about her!" Screamed Alexa, the first words many of the campers had heard her speak since she had arrived. Jazz stumbled and Alexa capitalized by throwing a wave of molten rock towards Jazz's feet. Jazz was forced to roll to the side, barely deflecting the next blast of rock with her shield. Having stolen her footing from her, Alexa's assaults became faster, forcing Jazz to dodge and weave just as much as block. It was clear, however, that the six year old was starting to gain ground over the counselor. Jazz's face was red, her breathing heavy, her body so coated in sweat that at times it almost seemed like her face was steaming as much as Alexa's was.

"You don't get to talk about Morgan! You mean, stupid, bully!"Alexa punctuated her words by driving a red hot bit of lava into Jazz's shield. The point it struck began to glow, warping from heat and pressure. Alexa reared back her fist, ready to drive the lava straight through the bronze, when something lightly hit her in the back of the head.

Alexa blinked and looked down to find something burning on top of the liquid rock. By the time she found it it had already burnt to an unrecognizable black mass, but she did breath in the smoke. It was a strange smell, like pine and flowers, and...something else. Something that seemed to take the tension from her muscles. She looked up, towards where it had come from and found Chris O'Quinn, surprisingly, standing at the front of the group, his arm still flung forward after the throw. He straightened up, his eyes still locked on Alexa and, for one of the first times in Alexa's memory, spoke.

"Calm down." He ordered. The boy's voice flowed over her, slow and melodious. The two simple words wormed their way into her head, and despite her best efforts to stay angry, she felt the burning heat leaving her. All around her the lava began to darken, a thin shiny black outer layer starting to form on the cooling flow.

"Calm down." He repeated, his words coming out a bit more gently. Alexa lowered her hands, her breathing coming out shallow and ragged. She suddenly became aware of moisture on her cheeks. As the heat haze dissipated from around her everyone could see the thick, fat tears rolling down her face. Even with the lava cooling, the assembled campers were quick to notice that the scene was still bathed in an orange light. Some of the more perceptive realized that the light was coming from above Alexa, not around her. As these few pointed out the sign, Chiron finally trotted up, bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, a look of worry on his face.

The centaur looked up at the sign above Alexa's head, drawing Alexa's own attention to it for the first time.

"It is determined." He declared. The campers quietly kneeled around the girl ringed by volcanic rock. The sign, a hammer and anvil giving off that faint orange light, had begun to fade.

"Hephaestus, Lord of the Forge, the Crafty One, God of Volcanoes. Hail, Alexa Barber, Daughter of the Blacksmith of the Gods." Chiron bowed his head as he finished. The assembly was silent for a short while, until a tired voice broke the spell.

"Anyone else smell burnt bacon?" Jazz groaned.


	4. On the Couch

After the...incident, Alexa found herself in the infirmary. Although, she realized, calling it an infirmary might've been a bit generous. The room only had two cots, each low and uncomfortable, and a set of six chairs all with no sort of cushioning. It was in one of these chairs that Alexa sat. After checking her over and only finding minor burns that were quickly treated, Chiron had told her to sit and calm down while he took care of the rest of the campers who had been at the explosive event.

She knew what he was really doing. He and, she could only assume, Mr. D were discussing her only a few rooms away. She could hear the gently clopping of Chiron's hooves on the floor as he paced, snippets of the conversation floating down the hall into the infirmary. She kept hearing words like "Rare" "Training" and some V word she didn't quite catch.

Alexa looked down at her hands and flexed her fingers. Her anger had been pushed out of her by Chris's calming voice, but she could still feel something. If she had to put it into words she'd say she felt raw. Like the anger had been a burning heat inside her gut and now, without it there, she felt better, but the flesh inside was charred and tender. Reminding her of just how mad she had been, and just how much was still bubbling under the surface.

"Well howdy neighbor!"

Alexa jumped, looking up. There, standing in the doorway was Jazz, her barb wire grin already in place. Unlike Alexa, Jazz looked like she had just been in a fight; Bandaids decorated her face seemingly at random, her left arm was wrapped in a bandage that gave off pungent, sickly sweet smell, and her hair was still singed in a few places.

Alexa felt her whole body stiffen at the sight of her, the embers of her resentment coaxed to life deep in her gut. She resolved herself to just being silent again.

"None of that" Jazz said, walking into the room and wagging her finger slightly. "I put in too much work for you to go back in your shell again. We're either gonna talk or you're gonna try to beat the crap out of me. Hell, both those things might happen. Day's still young and I've got more places that aren't burnt yet!"

Alexa hesitated. Was this how it normally went in school or camp? She hadn't had many friends anywhere near her own age growing up, only Morgan, was this how it normally went? The thought of her sister sent a pang of sadness through her heart. She tried to ignore it, pushed it down until it once again became a dull background ache, and focused on the person in front of her.

"What do you want Jasmine?" She asked quietly.

"I wanted to see how you were feeling, Spitfire." She said, her grin growing all the larger as she sits down opposite Alexa. "That was a bit of a tussle we had, and with everything going on…" She waves with her uninjured hand.

Alexa said nothing, she just glared at her tormentor. Jazz responded with a sigh.

"Still pissed at me, huh?" She grumbles, her smile fading. "Look, kid. I might not be the sharpest sword on the weapon's rack, and I'm definitely not 'in touch with my emotions'" She said, using the air quotes and pulling a slight face. "But I do know something about anger. That's why I went out of my way to help you since you got here. When you put up walls like you did, and you let the emotions rot in your brain, it will eventually completely fuck you up."

She pauses to point at Alexa with her free hand. "From the moment you got out of the satyr's van, I knew you were pushing your feelings down. I knew you were making it worse for yourself. So, I used the best emotional battering ram I had to break down that wall; I gave you a target! I gave you someone you could get so mad at that you can let the pressure out."

Alexa stared at Jazz for a very long time before saying what was on her mind. "That's...so dumb."

"Hey, it's only dumb if it doesn't work! If it works it's inspired!" Jazz said, her grin returning " Only thing I didn't really plan on was the lava. I thought you were just going to throw a bit of a tantrum and that was it...But still. I got what I wanted."

She scoots forward on her chair, leaning forward to look Alexa in the eye. "But now that I have the gate open, it's up to you to decide the next step. If you want to talk, talk, if you want something to beat up, I'll get my armor on and we'll have a little sparring match. But whatever you want to do, you can't just bottle it up again. You gotta let it out or it'll tear you up inside."

Alexa looked down at her hands again, flexing her fingers while she mulled over what Jazz had told her.

"Just think on it a bit, okay Spitfire?" She gave Alexa a pat on the shoulder and started walking towards the door.

"...My mom used to hit me." Later, when looking back on this moment, Alexa wouldn't have been able to tell anyone why she decided to open up to Jazz. The only thing she could really tell anyone was, she had. Jazz's footsteps stopped on the way to the door. Alexa didn't look up but she knew that Jazz had stopped walking, and she was reasonably sure the older girl was watching her closely. Alexa kept her head bowed, and stared at her hands. She had never said that outloud, nor had she ever told anyone what she was about to say.

"Whenever I did something she didn't like...I'd get hit, or worse. Sometimes she'd use a bottle, sometimes her hand. But…" She took a shaky breath. She was aware of wetness falling onto her hands, her fingers trembling, and her vision going a bit blurry, but she pressed on.

"S-sometimes...sometimes she'd lock me in the cupboard under the sink. When I really…" She trailed off, Morgan had been trying for most of her life to get her away from that line of thought. She never deserved it, she knew that, but it was hard to argue with the grip her mother had on her mind. She could still remember the fear, the pain as the woman jerked her arm, the oppressive darkness beneath the sink, the stink of cleaners and the claustrophobia caused by the cramped space.

"M-morgan...my big sister…" It was getting harder now, her throat seemed to want to stop the words from coming. She swallowed several times, tears flowing freely down her cheeks and splashing into her lap. She suddenly became aware of someone next to her on the little cot, a hand gently resting on her shoulder and somehow she found the strength to keep going.

"M-morgan tried to keep me safe. S-s-she said mom was just s-sick. Her br-brain was bad. S-she felt like my daddy l-left her when he shouldn't have and th-that's what made her so mean. S-she'd try to step between me and mom and...and sometimes she'd get hit too because of it."

There was so much more that she wouldn't, couldn't say about her big sister. The way she held her at night when the bruises and scars on her back burned, the way she snuck into the kitchen to slip food into the cabinet where she took her time outs, the way she had taught her to hide when their mom was drinking heavily, the many trips to parks, or the library, or anywhere to get away from the apartment, the two times they'd both packed up and tried to run away, only to be caught and brought back within the week. Her sister had been her everything; her mother, her protector, her teacher, everything that she was now she could thank Morgan for.

"T-the night Uncle Theo found me, w-we accidentally woke mom up. S-she had been drinking. H-her brain was worse when she was drinking. M-mom was mad. More m-mad than I ever heard her." The words were coming out in a flood now, she couldn't have stopped if she wanted to. It was like a dam had sprung a leak in her mouth and all the emotions, the anger, the guilt, the despair everything was just flowing out into the room. Alexa's body started to tremble as she struggled to hold back against the flood "S-she was gonna break down the door s-so Morgan told me...t-told me t-to run. To go down the fire escape. S-she wanted me to run away."

She turned to face Jazz. Tears ran down her face. The daughter of Hephaestus felt a fresh wave of sobs bubbling up through her body.

"A-and I did!" She wailed. "I ran away!" She threw her arms around Jasmine. Dimly, she was aware of one of Jazz's muscled arms wrapped around her shoulders as she sobbed. What Alexa was unaware of was the other hand, quickly waving away a pair of older men. Alexa didn't even hear the soft clop of Chrion's hoof as he backed out of the room.

"I s-should've been there! I s-should've been there to help! M-morgan's gone because of me!" Sobbed the little girl. This statement Jazz couldn't just let go without challenging.

"Hey…" She said gently, more gently than she had ever said much of anything. "Alexa, look at me." She gently nudges Alexa's face upwards, turning those glistening eyes towards her.

"Alexa, you did the right thing. Half-bloods can't do everything, especially before you know what you can do. Had you stayed that witch would've killed or seriously hurt both of you." Jasmine said softly.

"B-but...but I'm a demigod...I coulda...I should've been there for her!" She sniffs. "S-she's dead because I wasn't there!"

"I guess you could see it that way." Jazz conceded. "You could think that she's gone because of you, or you could think that you're alive because of her."

The older girl paused, squeezing Alexa, trying to comfort her. It really wasn't something Jazz had necessarily trained for, being someone's emotional anchor. But she was the daughter of the war god, and any good platoon leader knows that the soldiers in their care need to be fit to serve. She was getting Alexa to that point.

"You know what that tells me about this sister of yours?" Sniffling, Alexa shook her head. "It tells me she was brave, and she loved you very much. She loved you enough to give you the chance to live."

She held Alexa for she didn't even know how long, she waited until the sobbing started to die down before speaking again. "If it makes you feel better...it's not like you won't ever see her again."

Alexa's head snapped up so fast that she ended up head butting Jasmine's chin. "Ow!" Gasped the child of the fire god, rubbing the top of her head. "W-what do you mean?"

Jasmine rubbed her chin. "Well I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty damn sure what your sister did, giving her life to protect someone, that's hero material. Which means that if she's anywhere in the underworld, its Elysium." When Alexa gave her the same blank look, Jazz let out an exasperated sigh and said "The good place."

"O-oh…" Alexa responded.

"So all you have to do is live a really good life and you'll see her again. Be a hero. Just like her."

* * *

Almost two hours later, Alexa felt a bit more in control of her emotions. Well enough to actually take a trip with Jasmine down to the cabins.

"You know…" Jazz said slowly. "With the kind of power you're packin', I don't think anyone would argue that you need a certain amount of training to go along with it."

"Yeah, good luck finding someone willing to train someone like me." Alexa grumbled softly. She still looked a little down. At least she was talking now, Jazz mused. They had taken that big step together earlier today, now the rest of the journey would be taken in smaller steps.

"Well, my dear, little Spitfire, it's a good thing I know someone perfect to train ya, and she's not too far away either!" Jazz grinned.

It took a moment or two for Alexa to comprehend just what Jazz was saying. She stopped in the middle of the commons area, between the 12 cabins. "You'd...really do that? Even after I burned you…?"

"Yeah, well, I can't exactly do anything real complicated until my arm's better. So you might be stuck going one on one with a training dummy for a few days before I can actually step in. But you need to learn how to work with what ya got." Jazz gave Alexa a reassuring pat with her good arm and started walking again, steering the younger girl towards Cabin 9; a squat brick building with a tin roof, a series of smoke stacks and a thick metal door.

"That lava stuff is no joke. The sooner you can figure out how it works, the sooner you can use it in a fight. The sooner you can use it in a fight, the more training time you can put in with it. The more training time you put in with it, the more useful it can be in any fight. And the more useful it can be in a fight…"

"The more dead monsters" Alexa supplied helpfully.

"Exactly!" Jazz beamed. "I'll hash out the details with Bond tomorrow, today you got something else to worry about." Jazz stepped up to the large metal door and knocked loudly.

"I do…?" Alexa asked hesitantly. "W-what?"

Jazz's grin sent up an immediate red flag and made Alexa's body stiffen. Before either girl could say or do anything the door to the cabin swung inward. Somewhere just inside the door some brass trumpet belted out a celebratory melody quickly followed by an assault of confetti on the two guests. When Alexa managed to clear the colorful party favors from her eyes, she just managed to make out seven figures, the oldest 14, the youngest 10, all beaming at her beneath a flattened sheet of bronze, with colorful images racing across its smooth surface.

After a moment the images condensed themselves into a message, written in Ancient Greek. It simply said "Welcome Little Sister!"

Alexa felt her breathing hitch, and not just because of the piece of green confetti that had found itself on her tongue. She hadn't considered what being claimed would mean for her, what each cabin represented. She had forgotten that being claimed by her daddy meant that there were others in camp that also had the same dad.

"I think they want to celebrate having a new cabin mate" Jazz said, gently nudging Alexa. "Go on...I'll see ya tomorrow."

Alexa smiled, and brushed a few more strands of confetti out of her hair with a shaking hand. "I'll...see you tomorrow" She agreed before turning and trotting through the door, into the waiting arms of her new family.


	5. Experiments and Mutant Spoons

The next few weeks passed in a blur. That first night in Cabin 9, Alexa was properly introduced to her siblings; Otto she already knew, as he was the one running the arts and crafts lessons, but she found herself with four new older sisters, and another older brother aside from Otto. There was the twins, Brent and Tamra Sawyer, both thin, wiry, and black haired 13 year olds, Jamie Taylor, a short stocky african american girl of about twelve, Helen Wyatt, an exceedingly tall, thickly built red headed eleven year old, and Sapphire Sparks, next to youngest now that Alexa was there, ten years old with an olive skin and dark wavy hair.

They welcomed Alexa with opened arms, and as the weeks wore on Alexa started to fall into a routine of constant and unending experimentation. Most of the day was spent making things; metal work, black smithing, ice carving, pottery, origami, hardware design, if there was something to make they tried her out on it. It was through this experimentation that Alexa discovered how her powers really worked and what her limits were.

First and most important of all, she found that she was not, in fact, fireproof. She could not dunk her hand directly into molten hot metal without consequence. Oh she was certainly fire and heat resistant, even on the slightly skewed scale her siblings operated under, but she would start feeling the heat after a few moments of touching something really hot. It'd start getting painful not long after that. Her ability to control molten stone didn't just stop at magma, however. Any sort of rock or metal counted as far as her powers were concerned, it didn't matter if it was lava, molten iron, super heated lead, or white hot copper, so long as it was from a rock she could move it with her will. The main drawback, however, she couldn't make the metal hot enough for her power to work on it. If she happened upon an existing form of molten stone, like the lava from the rock walls, or anything they cooked up in a forge, she could force it to stay hot or even raise or lower the temperature. The moment it started to solidify, though, she'd lose her connection with it.

Metal work was not the only form of experimentation Alexa found herself performing, however. Jasmine was true to her word and started taking a special interest in Alexa's progress. Her former bully had done a complete one eighty in terms of her stance on the daughter of Hephaestus. Although she still drilled her with the same level of intensity and force, it was far more positive.

Every time she was on the rock wall, there was Jazz, cheering her on and pushing her to better her time, every time she was racing one of the nymphs, Jazz was shouting for her to "Catch those overgrown twigs!", and every time they entered the sword fighting arena, Jazz sat and watched Alexa lay into a dummy, occasionally commenting or advising her to try a different weapon. Combat was where Jazz really excelled as a teacher; during the first week she remained on the side lines. The two, through a lot of trial and error, had fitted Alexa with a leaf shaped, double edged sword about the length of Alexa's arm, and a leather coated bronze shield. It didn't feel right in Alexa's hand, but Jazz assured her that they would find her a better fit later.

"Right now, it's all about getting yourself familiar with the basic concepts of swordplay. The fundamentals translate perfectly fine from sword to sword, so we can start you off on this one while we look for a sword that fits ya right." Jazz said brightly before pushing the younger camper towards the straw filled training dummy.

Alexa would have enjoyed Jazz's training a little more, if it didn't include an audience. Ares' cabin was bad enough, always glancing over at her with curiosity, but more often than not, they shared the sword fighting arena with the Aphrodite cabin, usually a gaggle of giggling girls, and always the same two boys. They always seemed to be looking at her every time Alexa looked up and the group's gaze made her fingers slacken on her sword. Once the two started sparing properly, Jazz always got a free shot in when Alexa glanced at the kids from Cabin 10.

The only break in their training regiment occurred on Saturdays. Technically Saturday and Sundays were entirely free to campers, allowing them to fill their day with whatever they liked. Otto and Jamie, for example, spent most of their Saturdays discussing classic cars, while Brent and Tamra alternated between arguing over the most recent rock album and modifying what had once been a cocktail style Galaga machine, but now looked as if half an arcade had puked inside it. Credit where it was due, the thing ran an entire arcade's worth of games, some even made by the twins themselves.

Alexa didn't spend her Saturdays in the cabin, though. Half of the day was spent with Jasmine, training in the arena until the young girl was left sweaty, panting, and sore. Rarely did she ever manage to land a blow on the more experienced and battle hardened daughter of Ares, and she almost never managed to get away without a swat to her ribs or arms. After they broke for lunch, she and Jazz would head up to the tallest hill on the camp's border. This far out, they could see pretty much the whole of Camp Half-Blood spread out beneath them. On top of this bare hill, so close to the camp's magical boundaries that one false step would take them outside the camp's magical protection, the two demigods sat and talked.

Jazz would never dare call it what it a therapy session, but in truth that was essentially what it was. She often let Alexa take the lead in these discussions, allowed the little girl to tell her about what was bothering her with the camp, or discuss her life before with her mother and sister, or just discuss music or television outside the camp's borders. It was a bit of a balancing act, if Jasmine pushed too hard Alexa would shut down and refuse to go any further, if she pushed too little Alexa would avoid things that were bothering her.

It was on one of these Saturdays that Alexa noticed two figures making their way towards the edge of the camp, vaguely in their direction. The taller of the two she immediately recognized as Uncle Theodore, the satyr that had brought her to camp, today dressed for travel with a dark green t-shirt, a backpack over his shoulders, jeans on to cover his furry goat's legs and a simple wooden walking stick clutched in one hand. The smaller of the two looked to be a kid, wiry with curly brown hair, dressed almost identically to Uncle Theodore. She frowned, she had thought she had at least met most of the kids at camp, but she didn't recognize this one.

"Who's that with Mr. Theo?" Alexa asked in the slight lull in the conversation. Jazz squinted where she was pointing and smiled.

"Oh that's just Grover." Jazz informed her. "Looks like they're finally getting a move on."

Alexa gave Jazz a blank stare and Jazz elaborated a bit more. "Grover's Mr. U's kid. Technically they're both employed by the camp, but Grover's still got the training wheels on. The camp sends satyrs all over the place looking for Half-bloods to bring to camp for training. They usually put them in schools, social clubs, things like that. Grover's still a bit young to go solo so his daddy goat is gonna spend a year with him undercover to make sure he's good, then Grover will be able to take his own assignments."

Alexa sat back, watching Theodore and Grover for a few more moments before a thought occurred to her. "Then...how'd he find me? I only met him for the first time on the day...I got to camp." She grimaced but Jazz pretended not to notice. "And I don't remember Uncle Theo at Kindergarten, so how'd he find me?"

"Nature spirits" Jazz said immediately. "The camp gets some spirits to work in certain parts of the juvenile justice system. Since there aren't that many nature spirits willing to take the job and it's kinda a gamble they only stick them in major cities. Some nature spirits are way better at figuring out stuff about a half-blood, but since they're tied to their tree or plant or whatever, most of the ones the camp can get out there can't go very far so it's a bit of a trade off from what satyrs can do. Their a little bit less accurate about it, but they're way more mobile."

Alexa's mind flashed back to that night, remembering the Nice Lady in white who had gotten her McDonalds and stayed with her until Uncle Theodore showed up. She hadn't even gotten the woman's name that night.

Alexa kept her eyes on the two satyrs. The younger one seemed skittish about crossing the boundary line, fidgeting as he walked and occasionally chewing on his shirt collar. His father set his hand on the younger goat's shoulder, trying to prompt him forward, looking down at him with those patient and concerned eyes that had first looked down at her.

Before even she knew what she was doing Alexa was on her feet. She made her way down the hill, Jazz hot on her heels.

"What are you doing…?" Jazz asked. Alexa didn't answer. She didn't say anything until she had gotten within earshot of the two satyrs.

"If you eat it now you'll look silly when we get to Colorado." Theo chided gently. "We don't want the mortals asking too many questions too soon."

"Sorry daddy...I get nervous…" Grover mumbled, his lower lip quivering slightly.

"You didn't think you'd get away that easy, did ya?" Alexa called as she approached. Both satyrs looked up. Grover let a slightly strangled noise, his limbs locked up, his jaw clenched, and he promptly toppled sideways. His father was quick, though, grabbing him by the back pack to keep him from smashing his head in the dirt and gently lowering him down to the ground.

"I've been trying to break him of that habit…" Theo sighed. He turned to Alexa with a smile. Alexa responded with a slight pout.

"You were gonna leave without saying goodbye!" She accused, taking another step forward. Theo stepped back, as if he were afraid that Alexa might hit him. Instead the young demigod rushed forward and wrapped her arms as best she could around his waist. She buried her face into his shirt, sobbing softly.

"Yeah we've been...kinda working on expressing our emotions lately." Jazz explains, wincing slightly "Just give her a minute." It took several minutes for Alexa to calm herself down. Pulling away, Alexa sniffled and smiled up at Theo.

"You saved me." She said in a quiet voice.

"You saved me from…" She shakes her head, her face still wet and her hands shaking. "I don't even know what. If you think you can leave without me saying goodbye you're out of your mind!"

The girl grabbed the satyr in another hug, this one much gentler than before. He blinks down at her but slowly returns the hug.

"You say that like I'm the hero here. I'm just a satyr." Theo chuckled. Alexa smiled and shook her head...stupid goat.

They held each other for several long moments before Alexa finally pulled away.

"Go and find another kid. Save them, okay?" She smiled and turned to face Grover, who again froze under her gaze. The younger satyr was older than she was, maybe ten or eleven years old if she had to guess, but he still trembled like a leaf in a wind storm when she looked at him.

"And you!" She said taking a step closer

"D-don't hurt-!" Grover started to say through chattering teeth. Alexa didn't allow him time to say anything else.

"Keep him safe, okay?" She said, nodding towards Theo. "If things get really dangerous out there, he's gonna need someone to watch his back."

Grover just stared at her, blinking, his mouth gaping like a goldfish. She turned on her heel and began to trot away, heading for the path back to camp.

Jazz smiled down at her as they walked, unbeknownst to Alexa. "So, what now? We still have most of a day to ourselves."

"I think I'm going to head back to my cabin, actually." Alexa muttered.

"Everything okay?" Jazz asked. Alexa glanced back, looking behind Jazz towards where they had been. The satyrs were already gone.

"Yeah." Alexa sighed. "I just...I need some time to myself."

Jazz nodded understandingly and gave Alexa's shoulder a little squeeze. "I'll be in the arena if you need me."

And just like that, Alexa was alone again. She headed back to her cabin to find it mostly empty, save for the arguing forms of Brent and Tamra somewhere in the upper levels. Alexa didn't want to bother them, she quietly moved into her own little work space, a few feet from the section of wall that hid her own bed. Her work table wasn't nearly as cluttered as her siblings, but she suspected that was only because she hadn't been there for nearly as long.

The work table held many many different tools ranging from hammers and tongs to a soldering iron and a gardening trowel. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what sort of application a trowel had in a chop shop like this but she didn't bother to ask. Her favourite part of her work station was what took up a corner of her table; To an outside observer it might've looked like a microwave or a pizza oven, a small box of metal and stone with a variety of knobs and buttons on the side. In some sense it was a small oven, but rather than food this was meant for metal. What Alexa, and every other child of Hephaestus had on their work table was essentially a mini forge.

The ovens weren't used for anything big, no one was going to try to make a sword with one of the mini forges, they were strictly meant for more delicate work; springs, gears, nails, clock works parts, anything that would be a waste firing up the camp's larger forges for.

Alexa silent made her way to her workstation. She pulled up the little stool she used to reach the work surface, fired up the mini-forge, and reached into a bucket on the side of her table and deposited a few pieces of scrap metal into the mini-forge's intake tray.

Molten Celestial Bronze hissed and bubbled as the 6 year old pulled the tray from the mini-forge. She pulled on a pair of thick protective gloves and began to work, shaping the metal with her hands as much as her power. As she worked she gently pushed out with her powers, hardening impurities in the liquid metal and causing them to drop from the work, tinkling onto the work table.

Alexa simply let her hands do whatever they wanted, occasionally pausing to grab a screwdriver, to carve into the cooling bronze. Meanwhile her mind wandered. Over and over again it went back to Theo and Grover. She chewed her lip, trying to push the satyrs from her mind. It was silly to worry, they were trained protectors, she shouldn't be worried about them...and yet…

Sighing, Alexa finally focused on what she had made. Honestly...the best way she could think to describe it was the unwanted child of a spoon and a tuning fork; it consisted of a small dish, about big enough for her fingertip, with two pairs of thin metal antenna sticking out from the handle, one pair sticking straight up, the other at a 45 degree angle from the handle. The only clue to what her subconscious had intended came from the collection of Celestial Bronze wires sticking out from the bottom of the handle like the head of a teeny tiny mop.

Looking up, Alexa gently set her new mutant spoon on the work surface. On the mantle of the large metal door sat a small statue, a small bronze figure of a squat little man with a thick beard, thicker arms, and one leg bound in a brace of some sort. He stood in front of an anvil, dressed in overalls and a thick apron, caught in the act of bringing his hammer down on some unseen bit of metal work in front of him. Aside from the small shrine near the back, this was the only depiction of Hephaestus in Cabin 9, the rest of the space was taken up with the work spaces of the god's children. Licking her lips, Alexa decided to do something she had never done consciously before. She decided to pray.

"Hey...um...d-daddy…" She mutters quietly, her eyes locked on the statue. She felt stupid, awkward, not only because she was talking to a statue the size of a bowling ball, but because she was asking her dad, a person she had never even met in her life, for a favor. Still, she pressed on. "I...I know it's not really your...your wheelhouse or anything and you're probably really busy but...um...if you get time can you look after Theo and Grover for me…?"

She waited for a sign, a signal that her dad had heard her, for better or worse, but nothing came. With another sigh, Alexa went back to work, grabbing up a circuit board. Even if Hephaestus did nothing, which was the likeliest outcome, she could at least tell herself she tried.


	6. The End of Summer Festival

The last day of the summer session was rapidly approaching and with the last week of summer came some last minute camp wide events; Three legged races, an archery competition, gladiatorial combat, and an arts and crafts contest, all performed with a well organized machine of cabin-mates.

The winning cabin would receive laurel wreaths and their cabin's banners hung in the dining pavilion during the bead ceremony and the following dinner.

Currently, it was neck and neck between Cabins 6 and 10, both with five wins under their belts. Cabin 9, had four wins, Cabin 4, had three wins, Cabins 5 and 11 both had two wins a piece, Cabin 7 had one win, and rounding it out was Cabin 12 with a big, fat, goose egg. Which was really saying something since Mr. D was one of the judges. Granted Cabin 12 only had one camper...but you had to think that Dionysus would cut Charlotte a little slack.

The campers were currently on the statuary portion of the arts and crafts contest, each tasked to use any materials and any tricks they wanted to make a statue in honor of the gods. Each group worked hidden behind a set of curtains, keeping their efforts hidden from the judges, and more importantly, their fellow campers.

"Now hold the ladder steady Helen!" Otto said from far below Alexa. The youngest camper from Cabin 9 stood on top of a ladder, blow torch in one hand, the other covered by a leather glove that usually would be way too thin for metal work. On her face was a pair of safety goggles with the blueprint of their sculpture superimposed on the right hand side of the tinted plastic.

"How's it going up there, Lex?" Otto called from below. Otto had started calling her Lex a few days previous, a sure sign that her big brother was warming up to her.

"Adding the clockwise swirl to section T-31 now!" Alexa called back without looking, her eyes focused on the bit of bronze before her. The blue flame washed over the orange-red metal, bringing the point she was working on into a higher and higher temperature range. Finally, just as it began to glow on its own accord, Alexa turned the torch off, reached out with her gloved hand and twisted, replacing the torch with a small pick from her tool belt. Using her power to keep the metal red hot she lightly notched the metal, giving the finger sized piece she was working on an appearance not unlike the spiral of a conch shell.

After leaching the heat from the metal,Alexa began to climb down from her perch.

"Good job!" Otto said brightly. "Think we're ready for the final assembly!"

What they had made didn't make a lot of sense to Alexa. The bottom of the statue was a standard marble pedestal, like all the cabins had been given, but above that she and her siblings had made a triangular plate, stretched so that the three corners were flush with the pedestal beneath. Each corner of the triangle was marked with a different Greek letter; The odd backwards five that was Zeta, the overly long n shape of Eta, and the mathematical symbol Pi.

Above this triangle was a track, similar to something you might see on a train set, though a bit more sturdy. This track was perfectly round, and went around the circumference of the pedestal. Above this was the sculpture itself and...well...to Alexa it looked like an actual bronze sculpture threw up. The amoeba shaped blob of bronze was a complicated criss cross of bands, twists, points and rounded edge. It was certainly impressive in an 'what an incredible mess' sort of way, but it certainly didn't look like any god she was familiar with. Regardless, Otto had been insistent and meticulous in its construction. So she assumed it had some sort of hidden meaning.

Seeming to read her puzzled expression, Otto smiled mischievously at his youngest sister. "Don't worry Lex, this'll blow the judge's pants off."

"Two of them don't wear pants." Alexa pointed out. "And I don't want to see that side of Mr. D"

Otto chuckled, but before he could answer the voice of one of the judges went through the Arts and Crafts building.

"5 minute warning campers! Put the finishing touches on everything " The speaker was a dryad, tall and thin, with brilliantly red hair and a simple white chiton. She sat at the shaded judges' table, with Chiron seated in the middle, and Mr. D seated on the far end. Out of all of them, she was the most animated and cheerful, Chiron was smiling but far more reserved and Mr. D just seemed to be bored.

"Alright team! Final assembly!" Otto said, clapping his hands. It took only one of the remaining five minutes to complete, and most of that was testing. The team stood back and waited for the final bell.

"Alright, campers." Chiron said, standing from the platform. "We're going to be fair about this. We have a deck of cards here with the numbers of your cabins. When we draw your numbers we will come and judge your sculpture."

"Wake me when you finish with that" Mr. D said with a yawn, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. "I already have my ratings for the demigods."

Chiron sighed and gave the pudgy god a slight nudge with his elbow. Mr. D took several more of these nudges before he finally conceded. "If you aren't going to allow me to nap then I might as well."

Chiron smiled and the nymph, Ruby, giggled softly behind her hands. Mr. D shot her a look and the giggling stopped at once. "R-right, lets see who's first, shall we?"

Ruby plucked the first card from the deck and revealed to the waiting campers the bright yellow sun on the face side. "Alright Cabin 7! You're up first!"

"Y'all might as well pack it in! Cause we got ourselves the best statue right here!" Said the Apollo cabin's counselor. Chuck was a tall boy, sun tanned, lean, with dark brown hair and an aphibal smile. So far as Alexa knew, the boy was from somewhere in Texas. Like the showman that all of Apollo's kids were, he waved his arm dramatically at the curtained off section. "Nymphs, centaurs and gods of all ages, I give ya, the Music Man!"

The curtains fell away, revealing a vaguely humanoid figure on the group's pedestal; Its skin was made of the wooden bars form a xylophone, its hair was the metallic strings of a guitar with two small curves sticking through, the ends of bass clarinets made into horns. The fingers on its hands were flutes Alexa couldn't identify, the hands were made of harmonicas and the arms were fretted and ringed with more strings. The two legs from the hips down to the knees were made of saxophones, from the knee down each leg was a clarinet, and each foot ended in a drum. The face of the being was a sort of funnel, which Alexa quickly realized was exactly like one from an old phonograph.

"This here sculpture, we dedicate to our father Apollo, as well as the lost god, Pan. We tried to make the sculpture in his likeness." Chuck said with a smile.

"Hey Chuck! Ya got some brown on your nose!" A voice from the crowd of campers called. Chuck grinned good naturedly and took a step back to let the judges look at the statue without obstruction. After a moment of consideration from each, they came to their verdict; Chiron gave the statue a 7, Ruby gave it a 9, and Mr. D gave it a 5. Cabin 7 was on the board with 21 points.

It was Chiron's turn to draw. Plucking the top most card from the deck, he showed the assembly of demigods the picture of the crossed sickle and stock of wheat. "Our next entry will be coming from Cabin 4" He announced.

All heads turned towards pavilion four. Their counselor, Nina, stepped forward. Nina might've been the oldest of Demeter's children they had at camp, but she was also the shortest of her siblings; At a solid 5 feet tall, her red hair and freckles made several people wonder if she were a lost leprechaun. She smiled at the crowd.

"We dedicate this statue" Nina said, her voice sweet as honey and musical as a bird song. "To our mother, Demeter. We call it, Khrysaoros, and you'll see why."

The curtain fell and to the shock of exactly no one, they all saw that Cabin 4's chosen medium was plant life. The dark wood of the statue was carved (or equally likely, grown) into the shape of a woman of about eight feet in height. Although she was beautiful, she also looked pretty fierce, with a frown that said 'the next thing that ticks me off is going to get sliced in half'. She wore a crown made of corn leaves, her dress was made of ivy woven so tightly together that the leaves seemed to overlap like chainmail. What was most impressive, however, was the scythe she held in her right hand. The shaft of the gardening tool was made of a different kind of wood than the statue itself, darker, closer to black than brown, and the blade of several different yellow flowers. Alexa recognized tulips, marigolds, and one large sunflower just to name a few.

"Oh my, that is certainly impressive" Chrion said with a smile.

"I suppose." Mr. D said lazily "If you like that sort of thing. Personally I would've used grape vines."

Thunder boomed in the clear skies over head. Mr. D rolled his eyes before looking up and addressing the blank expanse of blue. "I am not going against my punishment, I'm just expressing my opinion. Don't get your toga in a twist."

Ruby, for her part, seemed speechless, looking over the statue. When the judges gave their scores, Mr. D gave the cabin a 6, Chiron gave them a 7, and Ruby a solid 10, putting Demeter's cabin ahead of Apollo's by two points.

And so it went, one by one more cards were pulled from the deck and more campers presented their statues; Cabin 4 made a statue of (hopefully) animal bones dedicated to the twins Deimos and Phobos, Cabin 10 had doused one of their campers in gold body paint and put her on the pedestal just so she could claim she was the closest thing mortals had to their mother, Cabin 11 had made an enormous origami tortoise, one of their father's sacred animals, which almost blew away in a stiff breeze seconds after the unveiling.

Finally, it was time for Cabin 9's unveiling. Otto stepped forward.

"Our sculpture is a little odd." He began "Traditional building materials are not used in the same way. But I think you'll all find it...enlightening. We call this piece 'Shadows of the Big Three'"

The curtain came down the statue was revealed, and there was dead silence in the crowd. The silence stretched for three long seconds before someone, the Aphrodite girl who was still covered in gold body paint, shouted. "What the heck is that even supposed to be!"

This got everyone laughing, and Alexa wasn't the only one who's face burned in shame. To her surprise, Otto laughed along with them. "Of course, silly me, I forgot to unveil the actual sculpture. One moment!"

He walked casually to the final piece they had installed, a long metal arm that held a candle and a bronze cone. He lit the candle and quietly swung the arm around until it lined up perfectly with the Zeta on the triangular piece.

"There we are." Otto said proudly, pointing behind the statue, to the shadow cast by the candle. Rather than an amorphous blob that all but Otto had expected, the statue's shadow and light shining through it created the silhouette of a human figure; The shadow was broad shouldered, its beard highlighted by the light, its eyes glowing and flickering as the candle was rocked by the wind. His face was set and stern, one hand hung loosely by his side the other was wrapped around a jagged bolt of lightning dyed in red hues from the candle's flame. The campers gasped as the visage of Zeus stared up at them from the ground.

"Wait!" Otto said, grinning like the cheshire cat. "Hold your applause!"

He grabbed the candle arm and began to turn it around the pedestal. Campers moved to the side as the shadow twisted and changed. Otto settled on Pi. Zeus had gone, and in his place stood another man, this one was not quite as burly. His left hand rested jauntily on one hip and a small smile was traced through the lines of light on his face slightly hidden behind the much shorter beard. In his right hand was clutched a spear with three points that glowed with the same red light as Zeus' bolt.

"A good likeness." Mr. D commented. "I always said ol' barnacle beard looked a bit scrawny"

Without pausing to soak it in, Otto turned the candle's arm one last time, bringing it over to Eta. This time, the shadow's form was, as Mr. D put it, scrawny. Hades was much thinner and more wiry than either Zeus or Poseidon. The shadowy forms that had made up the bulk of their bodies now stretched on either side of the underworld god giving the appearance that he was standing in a cave with his right hand was curled around a staff with a two pronged head like the horns of a bull. His silhouette was not accented nearly as much as the other two, there were no lines of smiles, or beards, the only thing that shone from Hades were his eyes, bright and orange, and flickering as if in the wind cast by his mind.

Otto blew out the candle, banishing Hades' shadow from the Arts and Crafts area and the campers began to clap.

"Well done, Cabin 9, well done indeed" Chiron said with a smile. Ruby and Chiron both gave Cabin 9 a solid ten, while Mr. D gave his highest score of the day...a seven.

Hephaesteus' Cabin had just moved into a three way tie alongside the Cabins for Athena and Aphrodite, and it was time for the last event. All eight cabins moved to the edge of the lake where eight canoes waited.

"The final event is simple. A race, from the eastern edge of the lake to the west. The first canoe on the western shore shall be declared the winner! Participating campers, to your starting positions please!" Chiron called to his charges.

"Alright everyone, here's the plan!" Otto said, turning to his siblings. "Boys at the two ends, Tamra, you're at Brent's end-"

"Ugh, why do I always gotta be with this loser?" Tamra whined, giving Brent a shove.

"Because I'm the one keeping you in line!" Brent shot back.

"Jamie, you're at my end. Saph, you and Lex get the middle" Otto continues as if no had spoken. "We'll alternate each side, One, two strokes, then switch to the other side, got it?"

Everyone nodded and began to clamber into the canoe. Alexa took her spot in the center of the canoe and Otto took his spot at the back, still standing on the bank, ready to give the boat a starting push before hopping in.

"Campers, on your marks!" Chiron called. "Get set! And…!" He paused then brought the conch shell to his lips and blew. They were off! Hermes' cabin took an early lead, paddling like mad men, their canoe practically skipping across the water. Hephaestus' cabin trailed behind, their strokes smooth, and even; one, two, switch sides, one, two, switch sides. They were neck and neck with Athena's cabin, the wise goddess's children clearly saw the value of pacing just the same as they had.

For a while, they kept even with one another, but slowly, inch by inch, Cabin 9 began to pull ahead. Their arm strength, born from hours upon hours of forge work, began to pay dividends. One, two, switch, one, two, switch. They had pulled ahead of Cabin 6 seconds after they had both passed the exhausted Cabin 11. They were drawing close to the halfway point! Alexa's heart soared, they were going to win! Her first ever end of the summer games and Cabin 9 was going to win the whole thing! The Fates, as it conspired, had been waiting for that exact thought to cross through Alexa's head before it became time to dash her hopes.

There was a soft splash from somewhere to her right, that was quickly accompanied by a voice. "Stroke! And, stroke! And, stroke!" Alexa glanced to her right to find a canoe slightly behind their own and gaining. The little heart drawn at one end, and the teenager still covered in gold body paint told her which cabin had caught up with them. Sitting at the back of Cabin 10's canoe, holding a megaphone, was the young man she had heard.

Upon seeing him, Alexa felt her heart stop for a split second, then leap into her throat as if it wanted a closer look at him. Perfect bronze skin with dark blonde hair, perfectly styled. His face had a chiseled quality to it, sharp and angular, his deep brown eyes seem to sparkle with light, drawing her in.

When he caught her staring he smiled, a smile that made Alexa's heart attempt to beat her esophagus to death. Brilliantly white teeth showing through a set of parted lips that seemed sheepish and approachable. Alexa knew he was smiling at her, and only her, and she loved him for it.

He brought the megaphone to his lips, still with that smile on his face and he said something in a beautiful, melodious voice that made Alexa's heart melt.

"Paddle right!"

Alexa swapped sides and began to paddle. There was a frantic shouting from either end of the boat, but she didn't care. She was asked to paddle right and the idea just seemed to take hold! It was so amazing she wondered why she hadn't thought to do this sooner! She and, she was only dimly aware, four other sets of paddles cut through the water on the right side of the canoe, turning it nearly ninety degrees in a circle. Five heads all craned to keep the boy in sight while five paddles worked the water. Only two campers from Cabin 9 knew what was about to happen, only two campers could hear the frantic cries from the canoe they had passed meer moments before.

THUD!

The children of Athena found the prow of their canoe slamming into the side of Cabin 9's vessel, causing it to capsize. All seven campers were spilled into the water, as were two members of Athena's cabin.

Alexa sank beneath the waves and the moment her head went under something very strange began to happen; Her limbs began to grow heavy. Within a few seconds she could hardly lift her arms to scramble upwards. Alexa began to panic, bubbles issued from her mouth as she struggled to make any headway towards the surface. Despite her best efforts, she continued downwards, sinking faster, the light from above growing distant. Her vision began to swim in front of her, darkening as her desperate lungs forced her to inhale water.

As her vision began to tunnel she caught brief glimpses of things she had no context for; the deck of a ship, a city of cobblestone roads and white washed buildings, a green field where men ran at one another. Just before she lost consciousness two words rang in her ear, clear as a bell.

"Mountain Blood"

Alexa came back to the world of the living in a rather abrupt manner. One moment she was drifting away in a peaceful sleep that only the dead could really enjoy, the next she was on the banks of the canoe lake with someone jabbing their palms against her chest. Without a second's hesitation, Alexa gasped down a great lungful of air, rolled to one side, and promptly vomited.

"Thank the gods you're alright!" Jazz panted, giving Alexa a side armed hug as she wheezed and coughed up what felt to her like half the lake.

"What happened…?" Alexa whimpered as a blanket was wrapped around her shoulders. She looked at Jasmine, noting that she was also dripping wet.

"Well Cabin 6 hit you guys and you went under. We all realized something was wrong pretty quick when you weren't coming back up. And the nymphs…" Jazz's face suddenly hardened as she turned and glared at the lake.

"The naiads refused to help! I've never seen that happen before! They just watched while…" She fell silent, glancing at Alexa, her hand slowly pressing down on her shoulder. "But...are you alright? Are you okay?"

Shakily Alexa nodded, clutching her blanket a little tighter.

"Oh, lovely. Now that we've established that little Aurora isn't going to die on us, perhaps we should get on to more important business!" A voice said above the pair. Alexa glanced up to find most of the camp standing nearby, her brothers and sisters, all soaked to the skin, standing closest. A short distance away stood the Aphrodite campers, who were just as surprised as Alexa was to find laurel reefs appearing on their head.

"Dinner time! We have our winners and it's time to award the beads! The sooner we get this over with, the sooner most of you can get out of my hair for the year!" Mr. D continued, clicking his fingers and leading the way to the dining pavilion.

Alexa sat with Cabin 9, watching in a detached sort of way as the banners unfurled around them. A pink heart and doves set on a white background.

Chiron stood and began to speak, though Alexa tuned him out for the most part. She was too busy trying to figure out what had happened beneath the lake. She had almost drowned...but...it didn't feel right. The water almost felt, for lack of a better term, alive. Almost malevolent. It felt like the water had leached the strength right out of her in order to keep her down. The lake nymphs had refused to help her...did that mean it was they who wanted her dead…? Or was it something more than that?

Her thoughts were interrupted by movement all around her. The campers at their eight tables had lifted their hands to their necks, pulling off their necklaces, some more quickly than others. Alexa hastily grabbed her own, pulling the knot loose from behind her neck and letting the string fall into her palm. Otto walked from table to table with a small box, one she had seen him working with for several days now. He started with Demeter's cabin, and worked his way around the room, making sure everyone had one of the little clay beads he was passing out.

When it finally came to Alexa, the youngest of his sisters gasped; The bead was canary yellow, and showed a tiny black outline of the climbing wall, spewing tiny orange lava plumes like a mini volcano.

"By unanimous decision." Otto said with a little wink, then he moved on to continue passing out the bead. Alexa quietly pulled the string through the hole in the bead, keeping her head down so that her siblings wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

The rest of the night passed in a blur; The feast, laughter, jokes, comissoration, and congratulations. Tomorrow, she knew, the camp would start to empty out. Most of the campers had families to go back to, only a small handful would remain with Alexa year round. But Jazz was one of them, and she supposed that would be enough. Besides, with her siblings gone, that made her the de facto head of the cabin, which meant she'd be able to set lights out whenever she wanted!

Finally, Chiron called an end to the feast and the campers began to trudge back to their cabins, exhausted. Alexa didn't bother with any of her projects left on the work table, she just made her way to the wall panel that hid her own bed. With a yawn she pulled the large lever, put in her combination, and jabbed her finger into a hidden button beneath the latch. The bed popped out of its alcove and she climbed in. After pulling her screen closed she changed into her pajamas and climbed under the covers. She had barely allowed her head to touch the pillow before she found herself falling asleep.

Almost no time later, she began to dream.


	7. The Dream

Alexa was big. That was the first thing she noticed when she became aware of her surroundings. She was big. How big, she did not know, but judging by the full grown man jogging next to her she seemed to be about three times bigger than she had been when she put her head down on her pillow.

The two of them marched across a craggy landscape, with sparse patches of grass and ferns. Dead brambles mixed with the coarse sand and stone underfoot. The whole place smelled unmistakably of sulfur. It took several steps before Alexa realized that her left leg was completely bare, while the other was in some sort of brace, clutching her from the foot all the way to the calf. Every other step sounded unnaturally loud.

"Are you sure about this?" The man next to her asked. She glanced down at him looking past a curling, brambling black mass attached to her face. Despite her newfound height, he still appeared tall, his hair was black and curly and his beard was trimmed short. He wore a tunic, cinched at the waist by a sword belt, a cloak hung loosely around his shoulders, and although both his feet were adorned with sandals one was a slightly different shade of brown, more red in tone than the other.

Alexa felt her mouth crease into a small smile.

"Aye, captain." A voice said, using her own lips. "I'm sure. If it isn't done, we'll have to survive the gods only know how long with what few rations remain. I will not risk our quest if I can do something to assure we make it home safely"

There was a pause, during which Alexa found herself amazed at the new deep, bassy, baritone she found herself speaking with. She continued, her mouth twitching slightly at the corners.

"Besides which, your beloved has not taken well to the food situation. If I have to spend any longer on board with her I may have to tie her to the anchor"

The man next to her grimaced and looked away.

"She's...not so bad, once you get to know her. She just has a different way about her." The man said, though something in his voice made her wonder whether he himself believed the words he was saying.

The pair traveled in silence for a time, until they crested a small hill and found themselves staring down into a basin dotted with smoking, bubbling pools. Each belched out plooms of thick, eggy gas. The man next to her gagged slightly and covered his nose with his cloak. Alexa ignored him, her own eyes drawn to a figure sitting in the mud.

Although Alexa would consider herself large by mortal standards, this creature, this thing was larger. Even from a distance Alexa estimated it easily cleared 10 feet tall when it stood upright. It was boxy looking, with its skin as craggy and rough as the ground they had been walking over. He grinned a lopsided grin, showing cracked, misshapen, green teeth below a slightly dripping, squashed looking nose and single massive eye set directly into his forehead. The cyclops stood, his sheepskin loincloth coated with mud.

"The gods be with you, my friend." Said the man next to Alexa. Alexa squared her shoulders and walked forward into the hot muddy field.

"Well! Didn't think you'd show up!" The cyclops laughed, grinning even wider. "But here you are! Right on time!"

"I did swear to be here" Alexa responded cooly.

"Heh, a promise made by a hero is never to be trusted!" The cyclops scoffed.

"A promise made by a cyclops, less so." Alexa shot back. "We have an agreement."

"Of course! Pankration, to the death. The winner will receive the hand of the lovely Princess Tryphosa-"

"Which I will return to her once I've won." Alexa interrupted.

"The rights to her dowry-" The cyclops tried to continue

"Which are rightfully her father's and will go to the man who actually weds her." Alexa interrupted again.

"And the rights to rechristen the temple in the name of whatever god they wish." The cyclops finally finished, glaring down at Alexa.

"It is already dedicated to my father. Why would I want to rechristen it?" Alexa said with a roll of her eyes. "We are both agreed on the stakes and my captain is here to officiate, he will declare the one he brings back as the winner."

"Yes" The cyclops grunted. "The contest starts now!"

That was the only warning Alexa received before the cyclops' great fist slammed into her with the speed of an oncoming truck. Leaping to one side, Alexa barely avoided the punch aimed towards her head, instead taking it on the shoulder. The force, however, sent her flying, skidding through the mud. She slammed her right leg straight down into the mud. The metal brace squealed and groaned but held firm as she skidded to a halt.

The cyclops closed in on her again, but this time Alexa was ready. She raised her left arm to block the haymaker aimed for her head. She felt it connect with her forearm, the blow made her buckle but she drove her other fist forward. In the space of a second she had delivered three powerful jabs, one right after the other, into the cyclops' gut. It winded her opponent but he recovered before the fourth fist flew. He grabbed her by the wrist and swung her over his head like a sack of flour, flinging her through the air again.

The muddy ground absorbed much of the force and Alexa dissipated the rest with a controlled roll. She came up spitting out dirt, much of it stuck in her new beard. She gritted her teeth, her opponent charged, baring his own. He clasped his meaty, craggy hands high over his head. Alexa grunted and jumped to one side, driving her bronze covered leg into the cyclops' left knee. The one eyed beast bellowed in pain and swiped at her, but Alexa had already jumped out of harm's way, getting in close to deliver another few strong punches to the center of her opponents body.

She, or more appropriately, the man whose point of view she was stealing, seemed to have realized that getting in close was too risky of a prospect with such a powerful opponent. She ducked, parried, and dodged each of the cyclops' blows and followed through with a few well placed, almost as powerful hits of her own. Before long the cyclops' body was covered in large blackening bruises.

But this could only last for so long. During one jab straight to her opponent's kidney, Alexa overextended. The cyclops had managed to whirl around and grab Alexa's throat, slamming her by the collar straight into the mushy mud.

Pressing her into the ground, the cyclops began to squeeze the air from Alexa's lungs. He grinned a malicious, moss toothed grin down at her.

"You heroes are all the same! You think just because you're a child of a god it makes you special! That nothing on earth can hurt you! I'll let you in on a little secret, demigod, most monsters have the blood of the gods in them too!" His grin grew wider as Alexa gasped for air, her struggling growing weaker beneath his bulk.

"Not...just...god blood" Alexa managed to gasp as a familiar pulling, burning sensation filled her gut.

"What?" The cyclops asked, confused for the very first time since their fight began.

"I...not just...god blood." Alexa gurgled again. Her eyes locked on the cyclops' own. She drew a ragged gasp and choked. "Mountain blood"

All around the pair the pools of boiling water exploded. Coils of red hot stone, covered in blackened and grayed patches of hardening rock burst, sizzling, through the pools and all struck simultaneously. Each hit the cyclops' chest and the combined force threw him back several feet. He slid and stumbled, his legs caught in mud that had rapidly hardened as the water was scorched out of it. Thick bands of burning hot lava wrapped the cyclops from head to toe. He was immune to the heat, but the lava just kept coming, covering everything below his neck and cooling into a thick volcanic rock. The cyclops struggled, his massive strength breaking the rock as it hardened but it was doing its job. It held him fast while Alexa got to her feet. She threw herself up a spire of stone she had just created, leaping high over her opponent like a wrestler performing a drop from the ring post. The cyclops saw what was about to happen seconds before it did.

"Father! He-!" He screamed, but before he could finish Alexa had driven her bronze braced foot straight into his skull. She felt something beneath her give, then half a heart beat later a gold sand puffed out of the broken stone mound she had crashed into.

Huffing and puffing, Alexa pulled herself up and brushed the monster dust from her clothing. The man from before was whooping and cheering some distance away where she had left him. She gave him a small smile and waved, already starting to move towards him when the earth rumbled.

The ground shook and it was all Alexa could do to keep standing as a voice boomed. "Palaimonius!"

Alexa turned towards the sound of the voice. Water gushed up from the gushed up from the ground, a new salty spring forming in the middle of the former battlefield. The rock spires she had created cracked and dropped into the pool, quickly swallowed up by the rising water. Stepping purposely onto the muddy bank was a man. His beard was short and neat, black as his hair. His eyes were as green as the sea and surrounded by sun crinkles. In one hand he held a trident practically humming with power, a greenish blue light dancing across the tips. Alexa found her throat convulsively swallow.

"L-lord Poseidon!" She says, quickly bowing.

"None of that!" Snapped Poseidon stepping up to Alexa. It took all of Alexa's willpower to keep from flinching. The sea god glowered down at her.

"What have you done to my son?" He growled, waving the trident at the pile of stones. Alexa gulped again, but rather than cower, which was all she wanted to do, Alexa felt her chest puff up.

"My lord, he was using his strength to bully the nearby kingdom. He was killing villagers and livestock indiscriminately, and with no sacrifices to the gods! I only did this at the behest of King Nikodemos, who only asked me for the fear of what he would do to his people and his daughter if he was allowed to continue his rampage." Alexa felt the explanation tumble from her lips.

"Be that as it may, he was still my son!" Poseidon growled, the tips of his trident glowing more brightly. "And you will be punished for this!"

"You must do what you think is right, my lord." Alexa found herself saying, glancing away from Poseidon's face and looking at the ground. "I will gladly accept my punishment so long as the people of this kingdom are safer than they were yesterday."

Poseidon continued to glare down at Alexa for several long moments...then…

"Damn you heroes...why must you always be so noble" The sea god sighed, his face softening slightly. He glanced back at the salt water pond he had made and sighed again. "I love all my children...every single one of them, even when they do what Xenophon did."

He turned to face Alexa again. "He was in the wrong, I know, but that does not mean you can escape punishment for this." He frowned at Alexa, then his eyes were cast towards Jason, then he looked back at the pond again. "Your father...he'd be Hephaesteus? He blessed you with the blood of mountains?" He waved vaguely at the smaller pools, now bubbling and boiling once again.

"Aye, my lord." Alexa answered with a nod.

"Very well then." Poseidon said, suddenly businesslike. "From this day forth, no demigod with mountain blood within their veins will ever be allowed in my domain. Ships they sail on will be met with parol, and any who find themselves within my domain without a ship will become as weak as a fish is upon dry land. That is the curse I lay upon you Palaimonius, and be grateful it isn't something far worse!"

"T-thank you, my-" Before Alexa could thank him properly, the sea god turned and marched back into the pool he had made. The next second, he was gone.

Alexa turned back to her companion, who was staring, open mouthed, at what had just occurred. With a sigh Alexa trudged back to him.

"I suppose that means...I can't return with you, captain." Alexa said sadly, the pair walking back down the other side of the hill.

"It...it is unfortunate but...no. No you can't." The man next to her said with a small shake of his head.

The world around Alexa began to swirl, as if the world had suddenly become a water color that someone had dunked in a bath tub.

"Well...I suppose it's better than what could have happened." Alexa found the baritone saying from a long way off. "At least I could do my part to get the men back to Iolcus. Do us a favor and raise a glass for me, won't you Jason?"


	8. All I want for Christmas

The fall and winter sessions at Camp Half-Blood were far different than their summer counterpart; For a start the camp had all but emptied out, leaving only twelve campers; A girl from Cabin 4, a guy from Cabin 6, a trio of kids from Cabin 10, five kids from Cabin 11, and of course, Alexa and Jazz. Even the nature spirits had taken leave of the campgrounds, only those of evergreen trees remaining to help run the camp.

The activities had been banished to the back burner for the most part; sword fighting and capture the flag replaced by mathematics and history. Alexa had never been to school before, her only experience with a proper school setting was the second hand accounts from her sister and what she saw on television, but she was fairly certain that most schools were held indoors and were not run by centaurs. Chiron was, by all accounts, a great teacher; he kept his students engaged, helped everyone understand their specific course material, and was always great about any subject posed to him, whether it be Latin, Shakespear, fractions, or the Spanish-American war.

That wasn't to say that the campers didn't practice their monster fighting skills, that was just kept to after class and on weekends.

The classes ended on December 19th, the books were packed away, there was a light snow on the ground, and the Big House had been decorated with lights and crossed olive and wool wrapped laurel branches over every door way.

Alexa and Jazz stood in the middle of the sword fighting arena, both drenched in sweat, despite the light dusting of snow around their feet. They had been sparring ever since the last bell had rung, and they were starting to draw a crowd; A pair of kids from the Hermes' cabin and, Alexa's insides squirmed a bit, the boy from Aphrodite's Cabin who had caused her to fall out of her canoe.

He seemed to be hanging out a lot more as of late, watching the pair of them. Although this fact didn't seem to escape Jazz, it also didn't seem to bother her as much. During their sparring sessions it was all about making sure Alexa improved. She had improved immensely since the day she had arrived at camp. The first day they had fought she went down every few seconds, and she hadn't gotten a single win on Jazz. Now, she could last several minutes and even pull a win out of the air once in a while. That was impressive against a child of a war god.

One thing she had learned to value was her shield, the leather covered piece of hardened bronze clanged loudly as Jazz brought her sword down on it. The vibrations ran through Alexa's arm, making her very bones rattle, but she managed to push back against the blade. She caught the hilt on the edge of the shield, flipping upwards in a move that was meant to disarm her opponent. Jazz, although knocked back slightly, had managed to hold onto the blade, and deftly parried the follow up strike aimed for her left shoe.

This match had been going on for a good fifteen minutes or so, easily the longest fight they had had that month, and neither side was giving an inch of ground. Jazz feinted left, then she spun her sword around and tried to catch Alexa's sword hand. The sword flew from Alexa's hand, skittering across the floor. Instinctively Alexa reached for it, over extending to one side and just as suddenly, Alexa knew what was going to happen. Jazz's blade shot forward, ready to deliver the faux killing blow, it'd stop inches from her throat unless she could stop it. With her heart beating fast in her ears, she drew her neck out to one side, avoiding the blade. She brought her shield up, hitting Jazz's wrist, while her right arm came around. The bronze battered the older girl's arm, knocking the blade free from its owner's hand. Alexa plucked it from the air and spun it around, bringing the point of the blade right up under Jazz's chin.

"Death…" Alexa panted before promptly falling backwards in a crumpled heap, utterly exhausted.

Jazz brought her hand up, touching the spot on her chin where the tip of the blade had touched her. Jazz broke into a grin as she retrieved both their weapons and two bottles of water. "See? Told ya, you're getting better!"

"Yeah" Alexa wheezed. "Still can't get ya all the time though."

"And that, my dear, little Spitfire, is why we practice." She sits down next to Alexa, handing the younger girl one of the bottles. As Alexa sipped at the cool liquid she looked up at Jazz. Her best friend seemed a bit distracted, staring up into the stands. She had been doing that quite a lot lately, and Alexa was starting to worry if something was wrong. However, just like all the other times before, she shook herself out of it. She turns to Alexa with a little smile on her face, though Alexa thought she could detect something else in that look. Something like apprehension.

"Listen kid...I kinda have a thing to go to. Family get together. We do it every Christmas." Jazz explains.

Alexa felt her heart sinking. Of course. Of course Jazz would be going out for Christmas. Half of the remaining campers probably were. She tried to sound upbeat, as she answered. "Oh...well that sounds fun. I'm sure you'll have a good time."

Jazz looked confused, then puzzled, then finally amused. "Well...mom tends to make a lot more than what we need and there's a lot of room at home. I was actually thinking it might be more fun if you were there too."

Alexa's heart leaped into her throat and for the first time in a very long time, she imagined an actual Christmas; A tree, stockings over the fire, a big dinner with people laughing, presents, gingerbread, everything flooded into her head with lightning speeds. She could barely get out the words "Y-you really want me to come?"

"Well I already told mom you were and she already has a ticket paid for you so I was thinking if you said no, I'd have to bop you on the head and drag you onto the plane." Jazz said in that tone that made it hard for Alexa to figure out if she was joking or not. Alexa couldn't help but smile, hopping up to her feet, momentarily forgetting her sore muscles and rubbery legs. She wobbled there for a moment before she managed to get her balance back.

"When are we going?" She asked eagerly. The sound warmed Jazz's heart. She actually sounded like a normal kid! A normal kid ready for Christmas!

"The plane leaves tomorrow, a little after noon. Mom'll pick us up from St. Paul's when we land and then we'll be there for like a week." Jazz explained. Alexa couldn't help but smile, nodding her head.

"Alright, that gives me plenty of time to pack!" She said, practically bubbling with excitement.

"Get to it, kid! I'm not waiting around for you tomorrow! If ya miss the bus you miss the bus!" Jazz teased.

Alexa was off without another word. Once she was back in her cabin she began to calm down. She took a quick shower and dressed herself in a pair of faded jeans, a baggy camp t-shirt that hung to her thigh, and her sneakers. She tied her hair back with a scrunchy, her head bowed over her suitcase. It took a remarkably short amount of time to fill it, but once it was packed with her clothes, a problem presented itself to the child.

There was something important that she had forgotten to do. Something she needed to do before spending Christmas with Jazz's family. How she could've possibly forgotten she didn't know, but it was, mercifully, a quick fix.

Alexa hurried up to the Big House, her backpack bouncing on her shoulder.. The porch was deserted, but she could hear movement inside, the sound of hooves on hard wood and the unmistakable voice of Elvis Presley singing Blue Christmas. Alexa followed the noises to Chiron's office and gently knocked. The music cut out. Chiron opened the door and beamed down at her.

"Oh I'm so glad you are not Mr. D." The centaur said with a soft chuckle. "He always gets so agitated when he has to come back for something. Come in, my dear, come in!"

She followed him into his study, and when she was motioned to the seat in front of the computer, she sat.

"So, what can I do for you. Not that your company isn't welcome, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn't just come to wish me a merry Christmas." His eyes seemed to twinkle as he looked down at her. It was the kind of look that made it impossible for her not to smile back.

"Well...um...well Jazz just invited me to spend the holidays with her and her family." Alexa started to explain. Chiron chuckled.

"About time too, she's been sitting on that invitation since Thanksgiving. If I told that girl once, I told her a thousand times, she can't keep procrastinating!"

"Right…" Alexa said, though, she really didn't know what else to say. She didn't even know what procrastinating meant. "Well...see since we're going so soon I kinda need to go into the city."

"Oh?" Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do I need to give you the procrastination talk too?"

"I...don't think so?" Alexa responded, squirming under his gaze. "I was gonna actually do this closer to Christmas day, but because the plans changed I kinda...sorta…" Alexa trailed off, her gaze drifting down to settle on Chiron's hooves.

"I see" Chiron said, his voice becoming gentle. "Well...where is it you need to go?"

"West 155th." She answered his hooves immediately. Chiron nodded.

"Alright" He said. "You have everything you need?"

"Yep!" Alexa said, quickly returning her gaze to his face.

"You have mittens?" He asked, suddenly businesslike. Alexa nodded and pulled a pair of mittens out of her coat pocket. "A scarf?" She responded by pulling back her collar and showing the camp branded orange and black scarf wrapped snug around her neck.

"Weapons?" He asked, undeterred.

Alexa responded by reaching under her coat sleeves and tapping a pair of bracelets against one another. The one on her left arm expanded into a round shield, the one on her right, a sword.

"Now when did you learn to make enchanted weapons?" Chiron asked, momentarily pulled out of his business like tone.

"Saph left her design book and Otto's been mailing me forge homework every week! We Iris every month for grading!" Alexa explained brightly, returning the two items to their bracelet forms. Chiron beamed with pride. It wasn't often that his charges could get one past him like that.

"Very well. You wait right here and I'll have Argus get one of the vans ready." With that, Chiron turned and trotted out with a swish of his tail.

* * *

After nearly an hour of crawling through the heavy traffic, Alexa and her many eyed companion were parked in front of Fine Fare Supermarket. She had told the giant of a man that she wanted to make the last part of the journey alone. Thankfully, he seemed to understand...or at least he didn't argue. That might've been because of the eyeball on the tip of his tongue, but Alexa didn't ask.

"I...dunno how long I'll be gone." She said sheepishly. "I promise I won't take all day but...I dunno."

Argus just nodded, several eyes on his neck and the back of his hand blinking at her in sequence. She hadn't had many interactions with the 100 eyed security officer up until this point. She had seen him on occasion, but she had never really talked to him that much. As was always the case, she began to wonder about what she was seeing; She wondered just where all his eyes were? Did the ones in his armpits cry sweat or tears? Did he have eyes on his butt or the bottoms of his feet? How painful must it be for him to do anything if he has eyes on his feet!

To stop herself from going too far down this rabbit hole, she popped open her door. "Thanks again for the ride!" She said, slipping out and quickly hurrying down the street. The streets, though normally packed with pedestrians, got quieter the closer she got to her destination. Most people rushing around for the holidays were either grabbing last minute presents, or preparing for meals, or else picking up family from the airports. Not many were going where she was going.

She pushed open the creaky wrought iron gate and made her way inside. There were a few people here, standing in their own little corners, huddled against the snow and the winds. She pulled her coat a little tighter around herself as she passed by the rows, silent except for the occasional whisper or rustle. She sighs as she found what she was looking for, the simple marker had already been covered up with snow.

Squatting down, she rubs the moisture away, enough to see the lettering etched into the stone.

"Morgan Elizabeth Barber: Born: March 3, 1979. Death: May 24th, 1993." Below this was another inscription, written in a fancy cursive script. "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know"

Alexa sighed. It hadn't been her idea to put that as an epithet. She was Morgan's only living family besides their mother, so as her caretaker it had fallen to Chiron and Camp Halfblood to figure that part out. Chiron had chosen a quote from one of the few children's books still in the Barber family apartment, and coincidentally, he had chosen one of the two sisters' absolute favourites. The whole thing, the funeral, the burial, the gravestone, was paid for by Camp Halfblood's 'Antiochus Fund', something former campers and even a few immortal backers chip in for moments such as these. It was only attended by Alexa, Chiron, Theo, and a bunch of kids from Morgan's class. Had it been up to Alexa, she would've made the whole of Manhattan attend her sister's burial.

"Hey sis…" Alexa said, softly. "You won't believe what happened today…" She sat down next to the gravestone.

"We finally finished classes and me and Jazz were doing the sparring match, right? So it went on longer than any other time and I disarmed her!" She beams at the stone, practically glowing with pride. The stones, as they always were, said nothing. They never had, not since she had started coming here, but she thought, or rather, hoped that her words would make it down to the underworld somehow. Maybe newly arrived spirits would pass the message along.

"And then" She continued. "Then Jazz invited me to her mom's for Christmas!" She smiled down at the stone, even as the tears began to come. They always did.

"I wish you could come too, Morgan...I wish you could be here to see all this...I wish…" The grief and pain washed over her again, her smile melted like snow in July. She bowed her head and sniffed, very quietly "I wish it had been me…"

Her throat closed up, the tears fell hot and fast down her cheeks, but she had managed to learn how to cry silently. She didn't know how long she had stayed there, but after some time, she wiped her eyes, and forced a smile back onto her face.

"H-hey…" She said, reaching to her back pack and pulling it free from her shoulder. "I brought you something."

She unzips the bag and starts to pull out what she had brought. "I was going to save this for Christmas day but since I'm not gonna be here...well…"

She brings out the frame, the bronze glinted in the light as she gently sets it up, driving a pair of little stakes into the ground just above the stone to keep thieves from taking it. Smiling out of the picture was her sister, gap toothed and pig tailed, about ten or eleven years old, with a pudgy, brown haired toddler clinging to her side and giving the camera a suspicious look. She had been too young to remember this picture, but she didn't think her mother had taken it. For one thing, it was in a park, not far from their home, with some sort of bronze statue in the background. Their mother, among her many faults, did not take her children out very often at all. If she knew anything about Morgan, her sister had saved up pocket change just to get a disposable camera and take this.

It brought another tear to Alexa's eyes, but she wiped it away just as quickly.

"I love you, Morgan" She said gently, brushing a bit more snow off her sister's name, the stone cold beneath her fingertips. "Merry Christmas"


	9. I'll be Home for Christmas

**Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while...everything kinda piled up at once. Writer's block, depression, ****anxiety****, change in sleep schedule, and a world wide pandemic kinda killed my motivation. I hope you all can forgive this for being so late, I had actually meant to have this and the next few chapters out by ****Christmas****...but...hey...at least I made Christmas 2020, right?**

The next day found Alexa and Argus waiting in one of the camp vans while Jazz lagged behind inside the big house. From the driveway, Alexa could just make out her friend's profile, but who she was talking to was beyond the view of the window.

"What's taking her so long?" Alexa grumbled. As always, Argus was silent, but the corners of his mouth twitched. The form of Jazz moved away from the window and after several minutes and a loud honk of the horn, courtesy of Alexa, the red head emerged.

"Come on!" Alexa whined, drawing the words out "Let's go, we're gonna miss our flight!"

"Keep your shirt on!" Jazz grumbled right back as she climbed in. "We still got time!"

Alexa pouted and turned from the daughter of Ares to take one last look at the Big House. She couldn't help but feel a bit of anxiety, knowing she was leaving Camp. Even if it was just for Christmas, it was still a terrifying prospect to leave a place that had sheltered her through the worst time of her life.

Just as the van pulled around Alexa caught a quick flash of yellow from the window. Then it and the house was gone, left behind as the van turned out onto the road.

The drive to the airport was uneventful, but once they had bid Argus goodbye and wished him a Merry Christmas they found the chaos taking place before them. Half the city, or so it seemed, was crammed into the airport, shouting, pushing, shoving, and just generally getting in each other's way.

"Oh good, it's not too bad" Jazz muttered.

"...This is not too bad?" Alexa asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah, some people still have an inch of space between them and no one's rushed the desk yet." Jasmine explained. It wasn't clear whether she was joking.

Quick as a snake, Jazz grabbed Alexa's hand and led her through the line of people. They got to check in, where one of the criminally overworked receptionists stood behind her counter. They handed over their luggage as the woman typed away on her computer.

"Is there going to be someone to pick you up when you land in Minnesota?" The woman asked.

Alexa thought this question was ridiculously stupid, and she had been about to say so, but Jazz cut her off.

"Yup! Mom's waiting to pick us up." She said before leaning forward and adding conspiratorially "Between you and me, I think dad's happy she moved so far away!"

The woman couldn't help but smile...or...well her lips twitched slightly towards a smile.

"Gate B-10, you're going to want to make a left up this way. Just follow the signs." The woman said. Jazz thanked her and hurried Alexa away.

"Word of advice; when they ask ya a stupid question like that, give them an answer that explains why you're traveling alone." Jazz said under her breath to her young companion.

"Why?" Alexa asked, her voice equally low.

"Trust me, nothing is more embarrassing than trying to go on a quest and winding up in airport security." Jazz responded darkly.

"No I mean...why do I gotta know that?" Alexa asked. Jazz stared at her as if she had just asked if dirt tasted like chocolate.

"Spits...you are one of the most powerful demigods I've ever met. Your power is incredible, you're great at making stuff, and you learn ridiculously fast. There's no doubt in my mind that when you're ready you're going to get a quest. And I know you're going to either kick it's ass or go down in a blaze of glory taking every monster in a square mile radius down with you!"

It might've been a bit of a downer to think about her own death, but Jazz's words did stir a strange feeling of pride in her. Jazz thought she was capable of quest! An actual quest!

This left Alexa smiling the whole way to their gate. The two girls quickly found their seats in business class, and Alexa claimed the window seat for herself.

Alexa had never been flying before, unless you counted on pegasus back. Even then, she had a tendency to slide off before they got too high. This was different, though. This wasn't a horse, heaving and pitching beneath her, this was a machine! A machine she'd have to actually try to fall out of! She was eager to see the ground fall away from that!

The engines took forever to start in the 6 year old's opinion. The machine slowly made its way to the runway, the engines slowly building in intensity as the moved away from the airport's main building. They paused for a few seconds then with a thrill they lurched forward, gaining speed with every second. Alexa could feel the slight twinges in her stomach as the plane's nose began to tilt, then all at once, they were flying, the ground rapidly shrinking away from her window.

Alexa sat there in silence for a moment, watching the city of her birth disappear replaced by a tangled web of rapidly shrinking suburbs. The houses beneath the plane's wing a far cry from the apartments she had spent the majority of her life around, and all blanketed with some amount of snow. She mulled over what to say in that moment, before finally asking.

"You ever wonder what it's like for...you know...grandpa?" She asks, putting just a small amount of emphasis on that final word. With all the rivalries and things going on at camp it was easy to forget that half the camp were first cousins.

"All the time. But which way do you mean?" Jazz asked, grinning that barbed wire grin of hers.

"I mean...seeing stuff like this, and more, on a daily basis." Alexa continued, nodding at the window. Jazz looked past her at the gray, green and white expanse below them.

"You have to remember just how old the old man is." Jazz said with a chuckle. "Flying might still be awesome for him, but I doubt he's looking down at a view like that, no matter how pretty."

"Unless some lady forgot to shut her window before her shower." Alexa added in an undertone. Jazz choked on the water the steward had just handed her and devolved into a coughing fit.

"Sometimes I worry about your childhood innocence, hanging around me all the time" Jazz muttered through her chuckles. Alexa thought that ship had long since sailed, but declined to say so. She didn't want to kill the mood.

The flight passed slowly, but the pair passed the time by treating it like one of their Saturday sessions; they talked, as well as they could when surrounded by mortals, they shared and they mused. As they neared their destination a thought popped into Alexa's head, and as sge was want to do, she just asked.

"Jazz, does your family know about camp?" Immediately Jazz's face darkened and Alexa wished she could take the question back.

"My mom does, I send her letters every other week or so." Jazz explained after a pause. "My grandma knows, but she doesn't believe a word of it. The extended family all think I'm in military school."

The tone in her voice told Alexa there was some history there. She didn't want to pry into it, if anyone knew about keeping things close to the best until you were ready to talk, it was her. Still she gave Jazz her best reassuring smile as they started their descent.

The plane's wheels hit the tarmac with a soft bump, and with that their trip through the air was over. They joined the crowd gushing from the aircraft like water from a fountain.

Alexa couldn't help but marvel; had they not had just spent 3 hours crammed into a metal tube she could've sworn they hadn't left New York. The barely contained chaos of St. Paul airport was identical in every way to the airport in Manhattan, as was much of the building's interior. It was only the skyline and the sheer volume of snow outside the windows that even hinted at the change. As it turns out, they had had a bit of a snow storm a few days before. Well over a foot of snow was waiting for them outside, far more than what they had left behind.

"Woah…" Alexa muttered. Jazz grinned.

"We are so having a snowball fight when we get home! Now come on, we gotta get moving!" Jazz said, nudging Alexa along.

They collected their luggage and headed for the pick up area. It didn't take long for Jazz to say. "Oh, there's my mom!"

Alexa looked in the direction Jazz had pointed and found her eyes drawn to an auburn haired woman in a thick black jacket and torn jeans, leaning against a wall, smoking with her arms crossed.

The younger of the pair took exactly two steps towards the woman when a large red and pink blur passed by on her left. She heard a thud and a slight squeal. Alexa spun on her heel, her hands half way to fists when she realized what had happened.

Jazz was being lifted off her feet by a monster of a woman. This would've been distressing had she not been laughing and saying. "Mom! There's not enough room for that!"

The woman that held her tight was not the woman in the torn jeans. This one was about a foot taller and built like a bear. Her hair was the brightest shade of red that Alexa had ever seen...and she was big. Not fat, but solid and wide. Alexa felt like she could break her hand just trying to punch her stomach, even with the thick pink sweater cushioning the blow!

"How can I help it? I haven't seen my baby in months!" The woman whined, giving Jazz one last powerful squeeze before pushing her out to arm's length.

"You got taller!" She accused "I swear every time I turn around you've gotten at least 2 inches taller!"

The woman's gaze fell on Alexa. She gave her a big smile, exuding warmth and a feeling that had been absent from Alexa's life for 6 long years; maternal affection.

"And you must be Alexa! I'm Melody! Jazz has told me so much about you! I hope your flight was okay! Did you manage to sleep last night? I know my first time in a plane made me so nervous I could barely sleep the night before!" She was bubbly, sweet, and just...kind. Alexa found herself liking her immediately.

"It was fine. Thanks again for inviting me Mrs. Sherman." Alexa said with a smile. It had taken an embarrassingly long time for Alexa to learn Jazz's last name, but when she finally did, she was unsurprised to find that her best friend, and a child of Ares, was named after a tank.

"Oh it was nothing! We're happy to have you!" Melody responded, giving Alexa's hair a playful tousle. "Speaking of, we should probably get going!"

Jazz's mother led the way out of the airport towards the parking lot. After a moment she began to speak again.

"Now, knowing my daughter, and how responsible she is, I assume she made sure you both ate before coming out here." She said in a voice that said, quite plainly, that she knew exactly what had happened back at camp. Jazz grimaced and cast a guilty look towards Alexa. Neither girl had stopped for breakfast at any point. In fact, the only thing they had had all day were some complimentary cookies on the plane.

"Still, I expect you two to be hungry and willing to eat when we get home!" She chirped, pulling out her car keys and twirling them on the end of her finger. "Nobody goes hungry in my house!"

Alexa allowed herself to be steered into a minivan waiting for them in the parking lot, acutely aware that, for the first time in her life, she was going to have an older woman fussing over her. Part of her wondered just what she had gotten herself into.


	10. I saw Mommy kissin'

What Alexa was in for, as it turns out, was being stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey. It took them half an hour's drive to get from Milwaukee to the small suburban town Melody called home, and the moment they had gotten inside the cozy little home, Ms. Sherman had gotten to work in the kitchen.

For lunch, Amber and Jazz received two burgers, each seeming too big to be allowed, and a metric ton of homemade fries. Under Ms. Sherman's watchful gaze, Alexa couldn't help but eat well beyond her usual limits. Melody beamed.

"Eat!" Melody encouraged. "We got plenty of food and you both look so thin!"

This wasn't necessarily true, but Alexa managed to choke down another few bites of burger, regardless. Jazz, however, had a different tactic to get her mother's thoughts off their stomachs.

"Where's Lisa?" Asked the teen.

"Oh you know your grandmother." Melody replied with a roll of her eyes "Praying for the soul of her wayward daughter and pagan granddaughter. She'll probably be back by dinner."

Although Jazz looked a bit angry by the news, the 13 year old didn't really look surprised. Melody turned to Alexa.

"My mom never really approved of my choices growing up. When she found out I was having Jazzy and her father hadn't asked to marry me...well things got a bit...heated. She insisted on moving in to make sure that Jasmine was raised properly." Melody explained.

"And not at all to mooch off her daughter's pay check and get free cable." Jazz cut in, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. Melody rolled her eyes again.

"She and Jazzy-pants never got along." Melody added.

"Jazzy-pants?" Alexa asked, the grin on her face growing positively malicious.

"We don't all get cool nicknames, Spits." Jazz muttered. "And this doesn't get back to camp."

Alexa decided to drop it for now, moving on to a topic she was honestly more curious about.

"So how did you meet Jazzy-pants' dad?" Okay, maybe she couldn't help but tease her a little. Still that didn't make her any less curious. Melody was just so...nice and good natured. A gentle giant of a woman. How did she ever attract a god like Ares?

"Oh... Well, I was only 18 at the time, senior year of high school. I was a bit of a bigger gal, even back then, and I was bullied pretty bad from the second grade on by this group of kids for being so big. So prom was coming up and I was surprised when one of the boys in that group asked me to go." A small sad smile crossed the woman's face.

"I was so excited! I completely forgot what they had done to me and just went along with it. It almost felt like he was trying to make amends. I got to the gym and I heard him talking with the others. They had this big plan of…" she paused and looked at Alexa, her cheeks turned a bit pink. "Of… uh... embarrassing me… taking pictures when I definitely didn't want them taken." Melody let out an awkward sounding cough while Alexa sat and tried to puzzle out what she had meant. Melody saw the cogs whirring in the little girl's skull and plowed onwards.

"Well, I was more angry than I had ever been in my life! I walked around the corner and punched Bobby right in the jaw and back handed Moe before he even realized I was there! I had four boys and six of the girls splayed out on the floor before I stomped away."

She took a deep breath here, and her eyes seemed to go a bit out of focus as she stared off into the past.

"I was outside by the payphone, crying and trying to compose myself enough to call my mom when he just showed up out of nowhere." A fond smile crossed her face "He was nothing like you'd expect, first off he was my age, 17 or 18, not at all like the big buff war god you're picturing, and he was dressed in a suit. Black jacket and pants, blood red button up, black and red striped tie, chiseled features, black crewcut, and a body that I ju-"

"Mom!" Jasmine squawked, her face about the same color as her hair. Melody blinked.

"Sorry Jazzy-pants, Momma-bear just got lost in the past for a minute." Melody grinned sheepishly. "Anyway, this boy walks up and asks me 'Did you break a finger when you hit them or something? Why are you crying? That was righteous!'"

"Righteous?" Alexa asked.

"It was a different time" Jazz said immediately.

"Don't worry, one day you'll be in my position and 'Fly' and 'Psyche!' will get the same looks as 'righteous'." Melody chuckled.

"So what happened next!" Alexa asked eagerly.

"Hmm? Oh! Well we started talking, then he asked me if I'd like to go in and dance. A couple of the boys tried to make a fuss, but one look at him and they went running. He was quite the gentleman, after that. We dated casually for a few months… he and mom fought like dogs and cats every time he came over, I think I liked that though. It was nice having someone who didn't just fold to every request she made."

"But when I do it, I'm an undisciplined, spoiled brat." Jazz huffed.

"She called him that too!" Melody chuckled. "He was so sweet when we were alone. We fed the stray dogs around town, we went to movies, he helped me study for finals, he even helped me get a scholarship - don't ask me how - he implied that it was best I didn't know the details. He was the best man I ever met."

Alexa didn't really know what to make of this. Everyone she knew described Ares as a huge jerk. How could that god be the same one that made someone like Melody? It could be wishful thinking, or rose colored glasses but part of her still wondered.

"I figured out who and what he was after the third week, kinda hard to miss honestly. He just gave off those vibes and I tended to see more than most, ever since I was your age." She paused here to smile at Alexa. "Everywhere we went he made people either scared or angry, half our dates ended with a fist fight. But with me, he was just the sweetest thing." Ms. Sherman let out a wistful sigh.

"We'd been dating for a few months before I found out I was pregnant with Jasmine. He stayed for the entire pregnancy, though, and from what I understand that's rare." She smiled and reached out to grab Jazz's hand. "Jasmine was about a month old when he left for the last time."

"Good riddance! I was happy to see the back half of the good for nothing freeloader!" These words came, not from any of the women at the table, but a woman in the doorway. Alexa was forcibly reminded of a downstairs neighbor she had had back in her apartment, Mrs. Nickles. Old, at least 60, with a rail thin frame, her gray hair cut short, and an expression that was somewhere between having smelled something rotten and just biting into a lemon.

"Oh mom!" Melody said cheerily "We were just wondering where you had gotten off to!"

Mrs. Sherman frowned at her daughter, then her eyes moved first to Jazz, and finally settled on Alexa. Her lip curled slightly but beyond that the older woman did nothing.

"Mom, this is Alexa, Jazz's friend from camp." Melody chirped into the awkward silence. "You remember? I told you last week that Jazz was bringing a-"

"I remember." Mrs. Sherman interrupted, her frown deepening. "I suppose this is another one of the indoctrinated children at the so-called camp."

Alexa was liking the woman less and less. Jazz looked about ready to say something stupid, brash, and probably along the same lines as Alexa's own feelings. Melody, however, beat them all to the chase.

"Mother," she said in a sickly sweet voice, "do we need to have the talk about how we treat guests in my house again?"

Alexa could feel the change in atmosphere. It was as if a spike of ice had dropped into the room between them all. Mrs. Sherman stood her ground.

"Daughter," she said, just as coldly as before, "do we need to have another talk about respecting your elders?"

"Oh no, we've had that talk quite enough, and I do respect my elders. When they deserve it." Melody said, just as cheerily as before. "Jazzy, why don't you show Alexa to your room. I'm sure after that long flight and lunch you're both about ready to keel over!"

There was no room for argument in her voice, so Jazz didn't bother to try to make one. She just grabbed Alexa's hand and yanked her out of the room. The last look the little girl got of the two women, Melody was smiling placidly as she scooped up the girls' dishes and Mrs. Sherman looked like an angry, wrinkled, old boiler on the verge of exploding.


	11. Blue Christmas

The next few days passed in a happy blur. For the first time in her life, Alexa felt… well... normal. Jazz led her through town, showing her shops, taking her sledding and introducing her to her cousins. The evenings were spent helping Jazz and Melody decorate for Christmas, hanging ornaments on the tree and helping Melody in the kitchen.

Or at least she attempted to help Melody in the kitchen. The two had found that, despite being living fire retardant, Alexa had no skill at cooking. She had somehow, on their first attempt at dinner together, managed to burn canned string beans and over salt corn on the cob to such a degree that Jazz had needed to chug a glass of water when she had taken a hesitant bite.

That was fine, though. She spent most of the 'cooking' time listening to Melody's stories and offering some of her own in return. Melody entertained her with some stories from her own life, and some of Jazz's earliest misadventures and fights she had gotten into. Alexa's favorite of these was the story of how a 5 year old Jazz had managed to make a 20 dog sled team using a trash can lid, kite string, and a ham bone.

In turn, Alexa shared stories of her earliest memories, her times with Morgan, and everything she had been doing since arriving at camp. Sometimes Jazz would sit in the corner and listen, smiling at the pleasant memories, or groaning and griping at the embarrassing stories. Other times she'd claim she had other things to do and disappear until dinner was served.

All in all, the four days between their arrival and the promised Christmas Eve party was a type of pleasant that Alexa had never gotten, except for exactly one exception. The fly in her ointment was Lisa. Mrs. Sherman hadn't been particularly mean to her, but if looks could kill Alexa would've had a pair of holes burned into her skull days ago.

On the twenty-fourth, the house was abuzz with activity; Jazz was hanging holly and colorful tinsel, Melody was busy cooking a ham and about ten side dishes at once, and Alexa was sat on the couch, occasionally tuning in to whatever Rudolph was up to on the TV while threading popcorn onto a string. Having never celebrated properly with her own mother, Alexa found the idea of wasting perfectly good popcorn on a decoration a bit odd. She dutifully sent the needle through the kernels again and again, regardless.

She didn't know what to expect but she had high hopes for the evening. She was actually going to celebrate Christmas! Like an actual family!

"I never got why that elf wants to be a dentist so bad" Jazz commented, dusting off her hands as she made her way into the room. "I think he's secretly a sadist."

"Or it's because a dental practice pays much more than a toy maker's salary" Melody chuckled, poking her head out of the kitchen. "If you're done with the tinsel why don't you two tie off the end of the line and hang it up on the tree. I want you both washed up and ready when everyone gets here!"

"Do we have to wear the sweaters?" Jazz groaned.

"It's tradition!" Alexa piped up. "Like trying to have fruit cake without making a face!"

"Killjoy." Jazz grumbled with a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. The two did as they were told, quickly hanging the rope of corn kernels on the branches of the tree. With that they retreated upstairs to Jazz's bedroom. The room was pretty much how Alexa had imagined it; rock posters on the wall, a set of weights in one corner, a punching bag in the other, a shelf full of extremely violent comic books and civil war books set against a wall, and all of it enclosed by four walls of such a deep shade of blood red that no one would've been shocked to hear that Jazz had killed someone to decorate it.

The two girls were quick to change into the sweaters, though Alexa was a shade quicker than Jasmine. In part this was due to her excitement, but there was some part of her that was still uncomfortable with showing her bare back to someone else, even Jazz. When the daughter of Ares had first seen the motley collection of scars that covered Alexa's back, she had been beside herself. She was so angry that, for a moment, she had seriously frightened Alexa. But she had told Alexa, in a surprisingly gentle tone, that if she ever came face to face with the woman who had put those scars there she'd personally rip off the woman's arm and beat her to death with it.

Alexa pulled on her sweater, dark green with reindeer, and smoothed it out. Melody had surprised them both with the gift the day before. Apparently she had hand knitted both during her down time. Alexa's was a bit bigger than what was normal for her, but she didn't mind that one bit!

She turned to face Jazz already scratching at the neck of the red Christmas tree sweater she was sporting.

"She always says she'll find a different kind of wool but it always ends up itchy" Jasmine grumbled. Alexa just beamed.

The two, now that they were properly dressed, headed downstairs. Melody was still in the kitchen decked out in her Christmas best, her own mother sitting at the table.

They appeared to be in the middle of a conversation that was making Lisa progressively more agitated, but they stopped abruptly when the children appeared.

Melody smiled at the pair while Lisa scowled.

"Don't you two look adorable!" Melody cooed, putting down the tray of cookies she had been pulling out of the oven and crossing the kitchen. She scooped Alexa up in a one armed hug and squeezed Jazz around the middle.

"I'm just glad they're not out back sacrificing a goat" Lisa muttered, so quietly that it wasn't entirely clear whether Jazz or Melody had heard...but Alexa had. She peeked at Lisa around Melody's frame, causing the woman's glare to harden, if that were possible.

Before she could even consider that anger, the door bell announced the arrival of the guests.

Melody had two sisters each of whom had kids. One had a son, Joshua, roughly 14 years old, dressed in punk attire, his black hair frosted with purple, and spiked. The other three, the kids of the other sister, were younger; two girls, Maggie and Crystal, 8 and 9 respectively, and a boy, Robert, who was 6, like her.

The latter trio were quick to abduct Alexa, dragging her outside with them while their parents dove into conversation with Lisa.

"What're we doing?" Alexa asked as Maggie dragged her along, the older girl's blonde curls bouncing.

"We wanna make a snowman!" Robert said eagerly "Mom said we could and I'm sure Aunt Mel won't mind!"

Given the densely packed neighborhood Alexa had grown up in, she had never actually made a snowman before. She had tried her hand at ice sculpture before at camp but she didn't think these kids would like it if she busted out a chainsaw. She watched carefully as Crystal got them started, packing together the first ball and starting to roll it through the snow. She quickly got on board with the concept, though. She grabbed fistfuls of snow and quickly packed it all together.

"Which part do you want me to do?" She asks eagerly, already rolling her snowball around, careful to avoid Crystal's tracks.

"You can make the middle!" Crystal chirps.

"Oh oh! I got the bottom!" Robert said.

"Robbie, ours are already too big for the top, why don't you make that one?" Maggie said gently. This sparked an argument between the siblings.

Back and forth the two went, Alexa watching with mild curiosity. She had witnessed no shortage of arguments between her own brothers and sisters in cabin 9 but those tended to end either with a thrown tool and some pouting or the phrase "I didn't touch your crescent wrench! Get off my back!" She would be lying if she said she wasn't curious as to how this was going to end.

She watched as the two siblings continued to tell at one another, faces growing redder and tears starting to sparkle in Robert's eyes. She was starting to grow worried that this would end with punches or someone running off before she finally decided to step in and throw her own hat in the ring.

"Why do you even want to make the body anyway?" She asks, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the argument. "The head's the most important part. The head has the face and the face gets the most decoration. "

Both of the other children stopped and turned towards Alexa. Robbie's mouth opened and closed like a fish. Crystal picked up on what Alexa was trying to do after a second.

"Well if you really want to do the bottom I can do the head. I'm sure there's somethings around here to make our snowlady look super pr-"

"Nope! I get the head!" Robert said, interrupting his oldest sister.

Maggie smiled and came over to help Alexa with the middle section, both girls heaving it up onto the base of the snowman.

"Boys." Maggie said with a small chuckle. Alexa bobbed her head in agreement, but said nothing. The pair were quick to find a couple of sticks for the snowman's arms, and Crystal had hurried inside for a scarf and some buttons to decorate it.

The remaining trio had just gotten the head of their creation on top of it's round body when Crystal returned. Alexa looked up, smiling, from her work, but Crystal didn't look at her. She just went straight over to the snowman. She handed the buttons over to Robbie.

"Why don't you start decorating, I gotta talk to Mags." She led the younger sister away, frowning over her shoulder at Alexa as she began whispering to her sister. Alexa frowned as well, confused and a little hurt. As the sisters drew closer to the house, she couldn't help but notice the familiar face of Lisa peeking through one of the windows.

The two sisters returned to the snowman project but neither seemed as chipper as before. They quickly helped their little brother put the remaining buttons and scarf onto their creation, made their excuses and hurried back inside leaving Alexa alone.

She stayed outside with their snowman, unsure what she had done to make them so cold. Maybe if she apologized they'd forgive her. Just as she started to head in, she saw some movement along the side of the house. She froze, her mind flashing to the bracelets, currently tucked away in one of the suitcases upstairs. Why had she forgotten to put them on! This was exactly what they had covered in class! She was seconds from calling for help when the shadows seemed to solidify into a black and purple haired boy in ripped jeans.

"What's up?" Josh asked, taking note of her body language. She forced herself to relax. It was just Jazz's cousin, nothing to worry about.

"We just finished the snowman and everyone just left…" Alexa explained, looking back at the snowman.

Josh was looking at her strangely. He had a frown on his face and it looked as if he were trying to figure something out. After examining her for what felt like an hour, he shrugged.

"They'll come around. Just excited for the holiday. You better come inside, we're getting ready to start on dinner." He sounded... strange. Had she not known any better she would've thought she heard pity in his voice.

Inside, the family was just getting set up for dinner, the food was on the table, all the adults had their wine, the sun was taking its last red bows for the night, everything just seemed perfect...so why did Alexa feel off? Where was the foreboding coming from?

As she made her way towards the table, someone's boney hand snaked out and grabbed her upper arm. Alexa turned to find Lisa grasping her forearm, her face pulled into a triumph smirk.

"I have a table set up for you over here." She says in a falsely sweet tone and a point of her boney finger. Following her pointing digit, Alexa found a small, rickety old card table and a folding chair set up just outside the dining room. On the table was a plate, some silverware, and a red plastic cup with Alexa's name written on it with sharpie. She looked around for someone else, maybe Jazz or Melody but the family was all distracted and occupied with their guests. Frowning, Alexa allowed herself to be led to the little area.

Once she had plunked down in the little folding chair Lisa turned and left her there, alone. She watched as the older woman made her way to the head of the table, bypassing Melody as she did and taking up her wine glass. She paused only to take a quick dip before tapping the side of the glass. Everyone fell silent.

"Everyone, it's time to say grace." Dutifully, everyone folded their hands in their lap and a few bowed their heads and closed their eyes. Alexa quickly followed suit, folding her hands and dipping her head down slightly as Lisa started to speak again.

"O Heavenly Father we thank you for your son and the meal set before us on this beautiful Christmas Eve. We thank you for the friends and loved ones with us here today, but most of all we thank you for the family we hold close during this sacred time of year"

Alexa's eyes flicked upwards, widening as the woman continued to speak.

"During this time we need to turn our thoughts and hearts to those who don't have the same love and support we take for granted" Lisa said in a loud clear voice "I look around at all of you, at my family, and I see God's love etched in every face, and I know you all feel the same when you look at me." Lisa paused to smile at the gathered crowd, however her smile turned into a slight smirk when her eyes fell on Alexa. A smirk that disappeared with her next line.

"When I look out at all of you, I can't help but wonder what my life would be like without you all in it. And I thank the Good Lord above that you're all here, happy and healthy."

Alexa's mind was sent hurtling backwards, to another Christmas. A Christmas where her mother had come home stumbling and slurring and had knocked out one of her baby teeth with a slush covered boot. She remembered sobbing, and being thrown from the room like a sack of potatoes...and she remembered Morgan.

She remembered the worry on her big sister's face, the tenderness that she had used with her when she dabbed the blood, snot, tears and half melted snow off the younger girl's lip. Most of all, she remembered the way she had held her and gently sang to her until she had fallen asleep.

Fresh tears began to well up in Alexa's eyes as she realized with a jolt that this was her first Christmas without Morgan.

Alexa knew she wasn't included in this blessing...not really, she was on her own, just as she had been when Morgan had died...just like she'd always be. How could it be otherwise? Lisa obviously knew it too, that's why she put her here.

Had Alexa not been in the state she was, she would've noticed the look on Jazz's face as she caught sight of the younger girl sitting alone, and the look mirrored on Melody's face when her daughter grabbed and shook her arm. However her attention was solidly set on Lisa's voice, her memories and her miseries.

"To God, loved ones, and the beautiful Christmas season, amen!" Lisa finished. Alexa couldn't take it anymore. She got up and ran from the room, tears cascading down her cheeks as she hurried upstairs, a sea of curious stares following her.

Jazz called after her but the younger girl was already gone, disappearing into Jazz's room. The door was slammed and locked, the heavy bookshelf pushed in front of it by the disproportionately strong grade schooler. She could hear raised voices downstairs, and hammering on the door, but she paid them no mind. She simply collapsed onto her cot and had herself a good cry.

She didn't know how long she stayed there like that before she felt the presence, all she really knew was that her sadness, the now familiar emptiness inside her, had lessened slightly, just enough to take in a few things. The room was a good deal warmer than it usually was, not exactly the burning heat of the forges but warmer nonetheless. The next thing she noticed was the pressure on the bed next to her, as if someone were sitting beside her sprawled form. She sniffled and caught the faint scent of burnt hair and motor oil, a smell she found oddly reassuring and comforting after her time at camp.

She sniffed again and slowly raised her head. Sitting next to her on her bed was a man she had never seen before. He was a big man, his face reminded her of a moldy sweet potato, all red and shiny looking thanks to the grease, his black hair, eyebrows and beard thick and bristly. He had a thick steel brace over his leg one that, at a glance, Alexa knew he needed. He wore coveralls, stained in 3 dozen different places with everything from gold dust to ketchup, but despite the stains she could still read the name on the coveralls' name tag; Hephaestus.

The man, the god, silently reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a stained and dirty looking hanky. For a moment he looked like he was going to scrub her face with it, polish her like a piece of metal, but he pulled back at the last second and just held the rag out to her. She took it, wiped the tears away and blew into it.

"...Do you know who I am?" He asked her. His voice surprised her with it's gentleness. She had been expecting something rougher given his appearance. She let out a small hiccuping laugh.

"You're wearing a name tag and you got into a room without opening a door or window. How could I not know?"

"Well you're young so it's possible the name is too long for you to read, or the crying could've made it difficult to read it or…" The god frowned, suddenly growing quiet. In the silence Alexa could make out a bit more shouting from downstairs.

"That was sarcasm, wasn't it?" He asks with a soft sigh. "I've never been good and telling the difference…"

He hesitated then slowly reached down and patted Alexa's shoulder.

"I wanted to...to tell you I'm sorry." He said, softly. "I'm the reason you lost your sister…" Another small, Shakey laugh escaped his daughter accompanied by more tears.

"Daddy…" she paused, frowning slightly. That word...it felt so alien on her tongue. "I'm not mad at you...mom did what she did. You didn't have anything to do with it. I'm just…." She frowns, trying to find the right words.

"I miss her…" she said simply, quietly. He nodded his head.

"Ah...and you feel guilty too. I saw that scar the moment I saw you." He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Do you know why I prefer machines to people, Alexa?"

She shook her head and turned to face her dad.

"Because... people are complicated. A machine is easy, there's only two things it can really do, it can function or it can malfunction. People... people confuse me. People can be as fragile as glass or as tough as steel and there's no way to tell, for me at least, how well they'll function. Once a person breaks...I don't know how to fix them." She looked down at her hands...he was calling her broken and maybe she was, but all the same...he was here. He was here and trying to fix her, in his own way.

"I...think this helps." She said, despite not looking at him, she could feel the god perk up. "Family, real family, like Jazz, and Otto, and Melody, they help each other…"

It was odd, given that she had only officially met the god a few minutes ago but she already considered Hephaestus in that list. She wanted to think he could, and would, support her in these moments. She wanted to think that he had been watching out for her, giving her strength in some way when her mother did what she did. Alexa realized with a pang that he had been through much the same...though she thought Hera, at least was easier to forgive. At least she had only thrown him once.

The hammering on the door had turned into a more gentle knocking. Alexa looked up at her father, his pink face, his wild hair, the spark of flames in his eyes. Not exactly a friendly flame, but not the maddening, dancing, feverish one she saw in Mr. D's eyes either. There were two things in her father's eyes; hard work and power. She felt love in that gaze, though, and maybe even some pride.

"Thanks daddy…" she says softly.

He smiled and ran a hand through her hair.

"I think you'd better go before your family breaks out the battering ram." He said with a chuckle. She couldn't help but giggle. With Jazz that might be a legitimate worry. She got to her feet and quietly made her way to the door.

She dragged the bookshelf out of the way of the door and let it open. By the time Jazz and Melody enfolded her in a tight embrace, her father was gone.


	12. Gifts

The rest of the dinner passed in an awkward silence. After Alexa's reaction Melody had been forced to go into a bit more detail about Alexa's past. After realizing just why family was a touchy subject for the girl, and realizing that Lisa knew full well what demons lurked in the house guest's past, the whole family was appalled by Lisa's actions. Not just the speech, but the segregation and the warning she had passed to the children.

Evidently it was a bit of a long running issue with her. She had thrown a fit the moment Joshua had taken up the punk look, calling him everything under the sun, and everyone else had had smaller disagreements with her view of what was proper.

Still, it kind of ruined the holly-jolly atmosphere when you had to tell grandma she was no longer welcome in your home, and that she needed to move.

Several of those attending apologized for their lack of knowledge or action, but Alexa barely heard or cared. Her emotions had found their outlet, now she was just feeling drained and ravenous. After the fourth or fifth "It's okay" and the accompanied savage glare from Jazz, the grown ups got the message that she'd rather be left alone for the rest of the evening.

In the meantime Alexa did her best to finish off the entire ham on her own. She wolfed down six plates of food without slowing down and somehow still had room for Christmas cookies at the end of the meal.

One by one the families left, leaving the trio of Melody, Jazz and Alexa on the couch eating their cookies and watching Frosty.

"Sorry it wasn't the Christmas you wanted, Spits."Jazz said softly.

"If I gotta say it's okay one more time I'm going to burn something." Alexa huffed with a roll of her eyes. "I'm more surprised that I didn't start crying earlier, but I'm not sad that I did. You gotta deal with emotions, not bottle them, that's what you keep telling me."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw surprise then unmistakable pride on Melody's face, her own eyes trained squarely on her daughter.

"Yeah well…" Jazz muttered. They fell into silence, finishing the special and their cookies. The moment the credits began to roll Melody gave both girls a nudge.

"Alright girls, upstairs and into bed! Santa won't come if you're still up!"

"Really mom? Santa?" Jazz asked, giving her mother a flat look.

"You're both children of Greek gods who are being trained by a centaur and see nymphs and satyrs on a daily basis, why shouldn't Santa be real?" Melody shot back. With no real way to argue with that, both girls climbed the stairs, Alexa already yawning.

She changed into her pajamas and quietly climbed under the covers. She yawned.

"Goodnight Jazz."

As her eyes drifted shut she heard the other girl say "G'night Alexa, Merry Christmas."

Alexa's dreams on that particular night were ill-defined at best. A few things stuck out to her, though; A forest in the dead of winter where she spotted a truly breathtaking deer grazing in a clearing, it's coat a brilliant silver, it's antlers gold, a pigeon cooing in an old building at twilight, the number three floating in a whirlwind of numbers, letters and shapes, and a couple of icey creatures playing hockey with candy canes for sticks.

It was a shock to be pulled from that world of strangeness and infinite possibility only to find herself dropped into a throne room. The room was all marble and gold, circular with large columns and some sort of fire pit in the middle, now only coals and a few scant flames. Outside, past the pillars she could see the sky, cold and cloudless with an occasional flurry of wind blown snow.

She found herself dragged, in that gravitational way only really found in dreams, around the fire pit and up to one of the thrones at the head of the room. In this massive chair sat an even more massive woman, both she and the throne cast so deeply in shadow she could only make out her body's shape. However, somehow she saw the woman's lips, coated in a dark red lipstick.

"Yes" said the giantess, her lips spreading into a smile. "Yes I think you'll do just fine. Sleep well little hero and grow up strong, for one day I will have business with you. I would hate to see you fail when the time comes."

* * *

Alexa awoke with a start, seconds before the first rays of the sun peeked in through the window. She let out a soft groan and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, the mystery of the dream woman distracting her for several seconds before the date reasserted it's pull on her young mind. It was Christmas day!

She wanted to run downstairs right then and there, but she held off on the impulse. There were a few things to do before then. She reached into her suitcase and rooted around for a minute before her hands brushed the wrapped box. She grinned and yanked it free, as well as something else. She slowly got to her feet, an impish grin spreading across her face. Slowly she brought her weapon up to Jazz's head and hit the button.

The airhorn's loud report was nothing compared to the surprised yelp from Alexa's roommate. The daughter of Ares flailed, getting tangled up in her blankets before toppling from the bed. Alexa burst into laughter, falling flat on her butt and squealing with merriment as Jazz cursed, spat, and slowly extricated herself from her blankets.

"M-merry...C-c-c-christmas!" Alexa stammered between giggles.

"Laugh it up" Jazz huffed, putting a pinky in the ear that had been closest to the airhorn.

"Oh come on! That was good!" Alexa said with a fresh few giggles. "Besides it's Christmas! The youngest person gets to act a bit bratty on Christmas! It's in the rules!"

"Rules shmules." Jazz grumbled

"Oh okay, I won't do it again" Alexa promised. As a peace offering and to get things going properly, she pulled the present out from behind her back. It was wrapped in green wrapping paper, surprisingly neatly for someone her age.

Jazz quietly took it and shook it, listening to the contents shake and rattle next to her ear. Slowly, Jazz unwrapped it to find a wooden box about the size of a pencil case. That she deftly popped open with a flick of her fingers to reveal...a bracelet.

The links of delicately woven bronze chain sparkled as Jazz pulled it out of the box, the four little charms attached to the links lightly clicking as Jazz examined the largest of them. It was a simple disc of polished bronze, made in the style of a dog tag. It read: Jasmine Sherman, Daughter of Ares, her date of birth, Cabin 5, Camp Half-blood. Beneath this was a small symbol that Alexa had invented by overlaying the lower case alpha and beta symbols. Her maker's mark. Sapphire had taught her the concept, and had even shown her the one she used, but this was the first creation Alexa had ever put her mark on.

Without a word, Jazz put the bracelet onto her wrist, wrapping the chain around it and closing the claspe, placing it in a spot of honor on her left wrist, beneath the shielding bracelet. Alexa relaxed slightly.

"I'm not so good at the linking charm yet, so I couldn't touch it myself. They'll come back now, even if you lose the charms. " she explained when she caught Jazz watching her. She took a step back from her roomie. "Try one, pull it off, any one besides the dog tag."

Jazz did as she was told, pulling on one of the charms, one that looked like a moon. It came off with relative ease, and seconds later it grew from a simple inch long charm into a full sized axe, two bronze crescent shaped heads attached to a solid oak handle with a leather wrapped grip.

"Woah!" Jazz gasped, quickly adjusting her grip on the unexpected weight so it wouldn't crash to the floor.

"The other two are a Dory and a Xiphos." Alexa beamed. "I was going with something of a Spartan theme since you talked my ear off about them at Hallo-" She was interrupted by Jazz, putting the axe down and pulling Alexa into a tight hug.

"I love it!" Jazz said with a laugh. "Three weapons in stocking stuffer size!"

Alexa was surprised for only a brief moment, then quickly returned the hug. Jazz pulled away after a moment, a grin still on her face as she began to examine the Labrys. She'd find no flaws on the axe, or any of the weapons. Alexa had forged them at least five times each just to make sure they were perfect. Satisfied, Jazz put the handle of the axe to the bracelet. It immediately shrank back into charm form, attaching itself to the bracelet as if it were magnetic.

"I got you something too!" Jazz said excitedly, reaching under her bed and retrieving a package in red paper, wrapped not nearly as neatly as Alexa's had.

With the ferocity and eagerness only known to children on Christmas morning and wolves at a kill she tore into the package and extracted...a box. A box she quickly flipped over to the front to read the dark blue label and show off the picture of the cream colored device held inside.

"You got me a gameboy?" Alexa gasped with wonder.

"Had to do Mel's chores for a month, but yeah!" Answered Jazz with a grin. "Do you like it?"

Did she like it? No one had ever spent so much on her at once before! She gave Jazz a quick but fierce hug, one that got a gasp from the larger girl.

"I swear you could pick up a car by yourself if you wanted!" Jazz grunted, rubbing her back.

"Thank you!" Alexa chirped. Jazz grinned.

"Now come on, let's go wake up mom. We'll see if she likes that airhorn!" Jazz led Alexa from the room.

It turned out that the airhorn was not necessary as Melody was already up. The girls found her in the living room, cup of cocoa already in hand, a modest pile of presents on the floor in front of the tree next to her chair, and a garbage bag rolled up next to her hip. She beamed at the two as they entered. "Merry Christmas!"

They both responded in kind and without a word of invitation or prompting they both sat themselves on the floor and started looking through the presents to find one with their names on them.

They began tearing into their presents, Alexa found a large cardboard box full of new clothes, and another with baked goods and candies, then she opened a few stacks of children's books, a few electrical and mechanical manuals, a couple of games for her new gameboy and a few toys. Eventually she got to the last item. It was small, small enough to fit in her pocket, and covered in orange paper with a bright blue bow. The label read

"To: Alexa. From: Dad"

Alexa quietly pulled the bow free of the parcel and unwrapped it, revealing a small folded up piece of paper and what appeared to be a Swiss army knife, with a small loop at one end to put it on a keychain and a stylised H etched into the other end. She frowned at it for a second before unfolding the note and beginning to read aloud.

"Alexa, we don't often celebrate Christmas on Olympus, Apollo tends to get carried away with the carols, but I thought you might appreciate this. It's something I came up with a few years back, I call it the omni-wrench. As the name implies, it works on any screw, bolt, fastening, or rivet known to man, and most known to gods. I hope it comes in handy in the years to come. With love, Dad." She found herself smiling slightly as she tested the wrench, unfolding a Phillips head screwdriver, promptly followed by a torx screwdriver. "Cool!"

Next to her Jazz began to unwrap a package of her own. From it she pulled a note just like Alexa's. She didn't read it aloud.

"Dad... really does know a lot of curse words." She said, glancing at her mother. Melody peeked up a bit at the mention of Ares.

"Like an encyclopedia of sailor talk." Melody chuckled "What did he say?"

"Well he says that he enjoyed what I said to Lisa, and that she had it coming for years...and he wants me to have a Merry Christmas." She reached into the small box beneath the letter and pulled out a navy blue baseball cap with a bright red, stylized NY above the bill. Alexa recognized it immediately as a Giants hat. Jazz put it on without a second thought and returned her attention to the note.

"When you want to use this the right way, just use the word 'deimos'." The moment the word left Jazz's lips the hat turned into a bronze helmet with a bloody red plume. The moment it took it's new shape Alexa felt her nerves rising. An unidentifiable but undeniable dread washed over her, and only grew worse as she stared at the helmet masking her friend's face. She shuddered and promptly looked away.

"Oh yeah," Jazz grinned, "this I can use."

* * *

The rest of the winter holiday went by quickly and before Alexa knew what was happening she and Jazz were being hugged goodbye by Melody.

"You two write as soon as you get back to camp, okay? I want to know the moment you get there." Melody said as she straightened Alexa's scarf.

"We will. Thanks again for having me over, Mrs. Sherman" Alexa replied.

"It was no trouble at all, Sweetheart. Now you two better get going before you miss your flight!". She gently pushed Alexa towards check ins.

"Bye mom, love you." Jazz said, stepping forward for her own hug.

"Love you too, dear. Be careful and don't break too many bones, okay?" Melody said with a soft chuckle.

"No promises!" Jazz laughed before turning and leading Alexa into the line.

Alexa spent the entire flight on her gameboy, playing tetris. They landed in New York around midday.

"So who's going to pick us up?" Alexa asked, turning her gameboy off and slipping it into her pocket.

"Probably Argus." Jazz answered "Keep an eye out for him."

It only took Alexa a few seconds to spot their real escort.

"Chiron!" She all but squealed, making her way through the crowd to get to her wheelchair bound teacher.

"Welcome home, Alexa. Did you have a good time?" He asked, smiling broadly as she approached.

"Jazz's mom was really nice and I don't think I ever ate so much!" Alexa reported brightly. Chiron nodded and turned in his chair to face Jazz.

"Any issues, my dear?" He asked softly.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Lisa was a pain but Mom finally kicked her out." Jazz almost cheered at that but held herself back. Chiron pursed his lips and nodded.

"Regrettable, but there's one in every family. Come along, children." With their bags stuffed with Christmas goodies Jazz and Alexa followed the disguised centaur out of the airport. Getting back to Camp put Alexa at ease. A knot of tension seemed to disappear from her stomach the moment they passed the boundary lines.

This only lasted until they got within view of the Big House. She felt Jazz's body tense. She followed her gaze to the front porch and found the boy from Aphrodite cabin standing there, someone with dark brown locks wrapped in his arms.

"Jasmine!" Chiron yelled as Jazz popped open her door and leaped from the van before it could fully stop.

As Alexa climbed out and Chiron struggled from his wheelchair Jazz yanked free one of her charms, the spear sprouting to its full six foot length as she rushed towards the kissing couple. Jazz reared her hand back only for it to be caught in a vine. A vine that rapidly began to grow grapes.

"As much as I would love to see one less demigod in my care, I'm afraid I'd get a pretty stern talking to if I let you commit murder under my watch." Mr D said with a yawn.

Only then did the pair realize the danger they were in. Jazz was spitting and cursing as Alexa ran up. Alexa didn't understand most of it but she caught the phrases "Backstabbing cheater" "Ring your scrawny neck" and "Fuck you Jeffrey!"

It was then that the pieces began to fall into place. Seeing him around so often, Jazz's disappearances, even certain looks she had noticed from him. Jazz and Jeff had been dating! Which meant…

Alexa's eyes flicked to Jeff and the girl he had been kissing. She recognized her as a girl from Cabin 4, Rose if she recalled right. On her face she saw confusion, hurt, maybe a bit of anger, and fear. On his however, she saw anger, fear, but no traces of confusion. He knew what he was doing...and moreover, he almost looked satisfied. Alexa felt sick.

Mr D snapped his fingers and the vines retracted. "Now, go before you really try my nerve. Off you go Miss Jade. Leave the lovely couple to their own devices."

Without another word Jazz turned and stormed off, fury causing her eyes to shine. In no time she had left Alexa in the dust despite her attempts to keep pace.


End file.
